Strawberry And Knight
by Shintouyu
Summary: Once upon a time, a noble knight had been trapped in hell forever... but, one day, a strawberry blond girl from a distant land needed to summon a familiar... Thus, their fate became intertwined together.
1. A Strawberry And Her Knight

_**Strawberry And Knight**_

Chapter One

_A Strawberry And Her Knight_

_[Master And Familiar Pair]_

* * *

Once upon a time, in a legend long ago, there was a mighty Overlord who ruled atop his Dark Tower.

This Overlord's humble beginnings saw him awakening from a long slumber before going about his evil ways. Clad in nothing but steel armor and wielding a durable steel blade, he also commanded goblin-like creatures called Minions to his bidding. And, like any well-mannered overlord, his first grand order of business was to make his presence widely known to all who lived in the lands of the Middle-Domains.

So, what better of a reputation was there than to kill the famous Seven Heroes who had defeated his predecessor?

First, he freed a pathetic but quaint human village called Spree by defeating their oppressors and returning their food from the terror of Melvin Underbelly, The Gluttonous Bard Hero, when he served the oversized halfling his just desserts. The Overlord would next acquire himself a mistress - a feisty woman named Rose - when he went to investigate the fire at Castle Spree.

Second, he re-dead the zombies and stopped a terrible plague by killing a Succubus Queen and then liberated the city of Heaven's Peak from the tyrant rule of Sir William The Black, The Lustful Paladin Hero, when he gave the deprived man a well-deserved stab in the gut. Afterward he had spared some time to attend to Rose's needs before he made passionate love to her.

Third, he slayed bloodied unicorns in the nightmarish domain of Evernight Forest, appeased the whining of ghostly Elves by completing their tasks of protecting their sacred tree, and then purified the corrupted forest from the taint of Oberon Greenhaze, The Slothful Ranger Hero, when he brought the elf to an eternal sleep.

Fourth, he traveled to the Golden Hills and wrecked havoc on the dwarves by blowing up their facilities and stealing their beer. He freed the enslaved elves and saved their race from extinction from Goldo Golderson, The Greedy Tinkerer Hero, and his pet Rollie - The Death Steam Roller - when he gave the dwarf an offer he couldn't refuse.

Fifth, he roamed the Ruborian Deserts, returned the Mother Goddess Statue to the elves, and destroyed a den of raiders when he caught Jewel The Thief, The Envious Bandit Hero, in a brilliant trap.

Sixth, he stopped the destruction of Spree and Heaven's Peak from the rampage of Khan The Warrior, The Raging Berserker Hero, when he cut the giant fighter down to size.

Seventh, and finally, he defeated his most evil predecessor who had possessed the body of The Wizard, The Wise Sage Hero, when he struck the old corrupted user of magic down in the lowest and hidden bowels of the Dark Tower.

And so one overlord defeated another overlord and peace returned to the lands.

The new Overlord commanded the fear, love, and respect of his citizens. He ruled with competence alongside his organized wife, Rose, and his old minion advisor, Gnarl, and he continued to reign as the supreme lord of the lands... for a time anyways.

One day, a portal to the ironic hell known as the Abyss opened up. In his exploration of this otherworldly plane of existence the Overlord would eventually encounter and fight a cursed ancient being, The Forgotten God, and then burn the powerful entity to nothing but ashes. Alas, the Overlord was ultimately trapped in the Abyss as he was betrayed by an unfaithful minion who had closed off the portal back to his own realm.

He sought a way to escape but found none even after countless ages of searching.

Thus, the Overlord grew weary and sat down on a formation of rock in the wastelands as he awaited the end of his life. When that was, he did know either; the energies of this hell had transformed him from that of a mortal to something more akin to a physical demi-god and now his natural life-span was something even he could not measure.

For a long while, as he tiredly slept, time passed uneventfully...

Then, one day, a certain burst of magical energy tingled his dormant senses and awoke him from his slumber.

Before him - just slightly out of reach - was a green portal gaping in the ground. It was powerful, something that dwarfed even his own mighty spells, and proved itself by appearance alone to be a way out of the Abyss. But the Overlord did not care for escape, he had long given that up, both his worn-down body and spirit ached and did not wish to move any longer.

Yet, a singularly soft bell-like tone of young girl flowed into his mind.

_'...Please, my servant that is somewhere in this world...'_

His old body creaked and layers of undisturbed earth that had settled upon him over the years finally cracked as his body stirred. The tone was pure and as quiet as a whisper but it was also noticeably laced with fear; it was like a sorrowful song that resounded with his soul.

_'...The sacred, beautiful, and, above all-else, powerful familiar...'_

Who could possibly be wanting a relic such an himself? The Overlord's bones and muscles groaned under the stress of their forced awakening and protested the hard labor that was being thrusted upon them; more earth crumbled away from his body. He was tired and weak but his force of will kept him going; there was no stopping now.

_'...I ask of you: hear and answer my call!'_

What seemed like eternity ended when he finally stood up on his own two feet.

[...]

In a world far away upon a continent called Halkeginia, in the country of Tristain, on the grounds outside a large scholarly castle known as the Tristain Academy Of Magic, there was a rite of passage occurring amongst the youths who called themselves Nobles.

The Springtime Familiar Summoning; it was an event where young mages could truly determine their element and potential by summoning a familiar - an animal creature - to represent their inner-magic and serve them until death do them part.

Today, it would be an event of immense excitement for these growing students.

All except for one of course.

Seventeen years of age with strawberry blond hair and amber eyes - both bordered as looking like a light pink - there was a young noble girl by the name of Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere. She was petit in body, as she could be easily mistaken for a child leaning on the cusp of becoming a pre-teen, and was the third and youngest daughter of the esteemed La Valliere family who had the confidence of the Royal Family Of Tristain bestowed upon them for their many years of loyal services.

She was a proud girl who upheld her mother's Rule of Steel, she lived her life by the wand as Nobles of her society deemed fit, and she even had the highest scholarly grade within the entire school of Tristain Academy Of Magic. She was fairly a well-mannered girl that was always eagered to learn; a delightful student. But there was just one problem with Louise Francoise...

She couldn't use magic.

Halkeginia's standard of magic was composed of the classical elements of Fire, Wind, Earth, Water, and the legendary Void - formally named the Pentagram Powers - and every mage and magic and magical creature or thing was aligned to one of these elements. Those that were not aligned to any of these elements did not possess magic; in human society these people would be called Commoners, while those with magic would be called Mages, meanwhile those with both prestige and magic were known as Nobles.

For proud little Louise Francoise, whose family had groomed many powerful and famous mages, there was nothing more bitter than her current situation. Every single spell she had ever cast in her life, without any single exception, had always ended up in an explosion. It was sign that she had magical potential but, with the explosively consistency of all her spell, it was deemed that she possessed very low magical potential.

So low was her magical potential that she was considered only barely a step-above the Commoners that they ruled over.

Louise The Zero. That was the moniker she was given by her peers for her incapability of casting magic. Though she tried to keep her head tall and her tongue rapier sharp, the years of verbal insults and constant failures had whittled down her already fragile self-esteem.

Thus today was not a very good day for Louise Francoise.

The young girl did not share in the enthusiasm her fellow second-year classmates radiated today as they conversed about what kind of magnificent or amazing familiars they would summon. She was more worried about the prospect of her coming failure; her head was abuzzed with thoughts of the consequences of failing this sacred ritual and the image of her very angry mother filled her with absolute dread. Because she was deep in thought she was trailing behind the group at a much slower pace.

_'I'm doomed,'_ she cried in her mind, _'Founder help me!'_

A teasing but sultry voice from a female classmate purred beside the girl's right ear, "Oh how cute, I see that you're just trembling with excitement, Louise! You know, I'm also very eagered to see just what kind of familiar you'll summon today."

The strawberry blond girl immediately scowled in reaction and turned to face the speaker dramatically, "Don't you dare mock me, Zerbst! Not now, I won't tolerate it! Just you wait; I'm going to summon something so amazing that whatever simple beast you'll call forth will utterly pale in comparison!" she instantly retorted to her rival of sorts.

"Oh?" the girl called Zerbst grinned, "Is that so, Louise The Zero? You're going to summon something amazing?" she giggled, "Well then, I'll be sure to look forward to when it's your turn to summon a familiar then. Toodles," she waved a hand and strutted onward.

Louise Francoise watched as her rival, Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt Zerbst, deliberately wiggled her bottom with every step to taunt her._ 'How I loathe that girl,'_ she growled in her thought.

The two of them had never gotten along since the first day they had met. Such a thing stemmed from their own confrontational personalities and also because the Tristainian family of La Valliere and the Germanian family of Von Zerbst had a very long history between them - both families owned territory right by the border of their countries and were generally the first two that always fought the other whenever war had or would occur.

There was also the fact that Louise Francoise was greatly jealous of Kirche's figure. The tall dark-skinned Germanian girl had large breasts and an alluringly curvaceous body; in other words a very adult-like body that easily caught the eyes of intrigued men and envious women. Kirche was not one to be afraid of flaunting her assets nor was she one to be discreet about it, it would not even be an exaggeration to say that she had gone through a relationship with every single boy in Tristain Academy Of Magic with the exception of the newly arrived freshmen this year - she would find time to seduce those lads later.

The young Valliere pursed her lips, _'Damn it, why did I respond like that? Now I really need to summon something to beat Zerbst!'_

She had done extensive research on the Springtime Familiar Summoning for nearly an entire week and so knew the theories inside-out: the best magic circle was a simple one with just the pentagram - as any other additional runes could skew the calculations, the magic was mostly performed by the magic circle itself and the caster only needed to feed it Willpower, the ritual would look for the best fit familiar that greatly represented the potential or need of their master, and so forth. Louise Francoise could easily recall any of these information within a moment's notice.

But, despite all her preparation, that did not necessarily mean that she was ready for it at all.

"Ah, here we are," the teacher, a middle-aged balding man that wore glasses, said as he turned around to face his following students with a smile, "Everybody knows what to do, correct?" They nodded. "Then the best of luck to all of you! Now then, Class, who would like to go first?"

Louise Francoise watched with growing nervousness, and a tinge of envy, as the number of waiting students dwindled and the number of master and familiar pairs increased. A majority of her classmates had called forth regular animals, such as cats, dogs, birds, or snakes, but a couple of them had summoned some more intriguing creatures - of particular note, Kirche had summoned a fire-attribute salamander and Tabitha, the academy's top student, had summoned a wind-attribute dragon.

Even though she was not competing with Tabitha, Louise Francoise couldn't help but panic inwardly, _'Oh Founder, she summoned - of all things - a dragon! How am I suppose to top that?!'_ She was under no delusion that she was going to summon anything as impressive as a dragon, manticore, or griffon; she was well aware that she would be extremely lucky to be able to summon anything at all.

Still, one could hope for success, couldn't they?

"Hmm," the teacher hummed as he finished up recording the previous runes that had appeared somewhere on the familiar's body after the contract; he was always fascinated by what kind of combination would occur. Why, just last year there was The King Of Swords, the year before that was The Grossly Incandescent One, and the years before those were The Hero Of Courage, The Bender Of Elements, The Diety Emperor Of The Imperial, The Warrior Of The North Star, The Bloodedge Black Beast... the list goes on quite far to the school's nearly four-hundred years of history; though despite the impressive names, the teacher never recalled anything famous being made out of majority of them. "Has everybody summoned their familiar?" he hummed some more as he rechecked the list.

The Valliere squeaked as she was suddenly pushed forward by her rival, "Not everybody, sir. Louise hasn't taken her turn yet," and shrunk as she became the center of attention.

"So it's the Zero's turn, eh?" the students bemusingly gossiped with each other as they took several steps backward as a precaution. How big would her explosion be this time? Would she even succeed in a summoming a familiar? Who would like to make a bet?

"Ah, Miss Valliere, please start whenever you're ready," the teacher casually stated before he pulled out a pocketwatch from his robes and checked the time, _'Almost time for dinner to be served.' _Summoning a familiar tended to be quite a taxing spell on young students, thus eating food would generally alleviate some of their stress and restore a bit of their Willpower as well.

Louise Francoise grimly strode toward an untainted spot of earth before she knelt down and carved a magic circle into the ground with her wand. She worked slowly and mechanically as the reality of her situation sunk in deeper: it was her turn to summon a familiar and failure was not an option. She wanted to avoid punishment from her mother and beat the smug look off her rival... but what she needed was proof that she was indeed a mage and not some child playing make-believe. If she could not summon a familiar then she had no right to call herself a Valliere Noble.

The results of today would determine the course of the rest of her life and that utterly frightened her.

"Miss Valliere, are you ready?" The voice of her teacher brought her back into the present.

"Y-Yes, Professor Colbert, I'm ready," she replied. The balding man merely nodded in affirmation.

The strawberry blond girl made one last check on her magic circle, _'Perfect,'_ she told herself,_ 'It's definitely perfect,'_ and stood up. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath to relax her body and calm her nerves as she spread open her arms and waved her wand. She recited her self-created magic-verse in her head several times whilst she cleared her throat and licked her lips.

The girl mustered every single courage, confidence, and Willpower that she had and chanted as clearly as possible.

"Please, my servant that is somewhere in this world... The sacred, beautiful, and, above all-else, powerful familiar... I ask of you: hear and answer my call!"

The air stilled for a moment.

Then - without warning - suddenly exploded in a loud roar twice and veiled the field in smoke and dust. Even the students who were standing far back were touched and buffeted by the furious winds and rumbling earth; Louise Francoise herself - being closer to the epicenter - felt the very ground squirm as she fell flat onto her bottom.

Students coughed and swiped their hands at the dusty air, several of them sneered with annoyance, "That was by far the largest explosion yet, Zero."

"Hah! As expected of the Zero!" another added.

Kirche's voice rang clearly over the crowd with her own quip, "That was quite the explosion, Louise! I hope you didn't blow up your poor familiar as well; it would be _such_ a shame you know?"

The girl in question though just ignored their taunts.

Perhaps it was her mind slowing starting itself back up or maybe she was just trying to convince herself that it was true? Whatever the case, there was a nagging feeling that tugged at Louise Francoise's mind: she had summoned something. She concentrated hard to peer into the dust cloud and looked for the tell-tale sign of anything that wasn't just uprooted earth wafting in the air.

And there she easily spotted it - whatever it was.

Louise Francoise could not make out the details of the mysterious life-form but the silhouette of her summoned familiar was large and bulky with some protrusions jutting out. What drew her attention however were the two whiteish-blue slits that seemed to glow with power. She stared at the lights as they slowly rose up and up and up and up; she had to crane her neck to keep them within her sights.

_'Just what in the Name Of The Founder have I have summoned?!'_ Fear, but also excitement, tinged her thoughts.

A sudden gust of wind - courtesy of Tabitha - answered her question when it blew away the covering smoke: standing in a small crater was a fully armor-plated giant.

Louise Francoise's eyes quickly examined the dark figure.

The familiar stood and towered above their teacher and its presence easily overshadowed even some of the larger beasts that were summoned today. The thick armor was an obsidian-black color with sharp edges and appeared to be crusted in reddish earth that resembled the dry sands from the Sahara or the distant Rub Al Khali. The ragged red scarf and cloth that were wrapped and hung around the neck and waist were buckled by a viciously grinning face. On its left hip dangled a sheathless sword which length exceeded even the tallest man she could remember seeing in her life.

It was all frightening visual information to take in. Whoever, whatever, this person or thing was, they were clearly not dressed for ceremonial purposes. They were armed for battle. _'A soldier?'_ She could scarcely convince herself that the warrior before her was a human - she immediately assumed that it was a half-giant or something of the sort - but she greatly hoped that it wouldn't start swinging its massive blade in a fit of rage or confusion after being forcibly dragged here - she was too young to die.

"Are you alright, Miss Valliere?" The somewhat tense voice of her teacher snapped her out of her daze. She didn't know when he had started standing besides her but he had a quietly fierce look about him; the teacher's now intense eyes were completely focused on the half-giant.

"Y-Yes, I'm fine, Professor Colbert," she answered after some delay.

"That is good to hear, Miss Valliere. Now please pick yourself up and kindly back away," he stated in an oddly commanding but still gentle tone.

Louise Francoise nodded but then wryly frowned, "Um, Professor Colbert... I-I can't get up." Her trembling legs refused to support her off the ground.

The teacher cursed in his thoughts; this was a dangerous situation to be in. Jean de Colbert was once a soldier under a certain regiment of the Imperial Guards Of Tristain and had experienced many trials that could break even the most hardened of souls. He was no stranger to experiencing many deadly premonitions that forewarned him of being in a very dangerous situation.

And right now Colbert's instincts were blaring like the searing heat of a thousand suns pressing onto him.

This giant was extremely dangerous and Colbert was positively certain that he would not be able to beat this entity in a fair fight; even if he used every trick up his sleeves and every ruthlessness in his bones, he wasn't entirely certainly that he would survive a fight against the familiar either. Colbert could easily tell that the only reason he and his students were still uninjured was because the warrior was not immediately aggressive - which he was quite grateful for.

The teacher tightly clenched his wooden staff when the gaze of the summoned being fell upon him.

_'No, wait, it's looking at...'_

[...]

The Overlord answered the call and calmly, yet curiously, walked into the portal.

Suddenly he felt a sensation of falling. No, he actually was falling. He pondered only for a moment until he realized that the teleportation was instantaneous and that he had already arrived in his new location.

Though why he was falling from the sky, he had no idea.

The distance was short and he impacted the ground with a loud boom. The fall broke large chunks of the solid red dirt off his armor and even more of the accumulated rust and earth on his person cracked and crumbled loose as he slowly stood up from his heavy collision.

He cracked his neck thoughtfully. He had felt and dealt with worst but he was a bit too old for shenanigans like this now; if this was his summoner's idea of a joke, well, the Overlord wasn't laughing.

This place, the Overlord could sense, was saturated in a pure rich magical sort of energy. A tingling sensation of rejuvenation slowly washed over his aged and tired body as the ambient mana circulated through his system; it was a good feeling, something he hadn't felt in ages. He breathed in, dusty as it was inside his helm, filling his lungs with air after so long and enjoyed the clean atmosphere - it did not sting with every breath like that of the foul arid air of the Abyss.

He found this new location to be quite pleasant already.

The Overlord's view was blocked by smoke but that was quickly swept away by an unnatural wind - magic he sensed. He felt several intense gazes settled upon him but he easily ignored them since they clearly lacked the power to harm him. Instead, he chose to examine his surroundings.

The demi-god spotted children only some yards away dressed in white tops, black bottoms, with black cloaks as they stood looked upon him with fear and awe, meanwhile besides them were an assortment of creatures both normal and strange. There was nothing exceptionally unusual about these children, except for the fact that at least two of them had oddly colored hair - one blue and one red.

As for his environment, all around him there was short green grass and open blue skies; a short walk away was a forest and somewhat further out in the distance he could see a large structure that appeared to be either a castle or a fortress.

This area was definitely less gloomy than his own land of the Middle-Domains and certainly more welcoming than that of the Abyss. He found it to be a vibrantly colored place, to say the least.

The Overlord slowly turned his head and wondered which one of these people had summoned him. No not him, not her, no, not that one... Nobody from the crowd of children was it. He turned again to face the two people that were much closer in distance to him; there was a middle-aged man standing protectively over a fallen pink haired girl.

He definitely didn't know what was stranger: the blue hair or the pink hair. At least the color red was something he had seen on succubi before.

He paid the adult some attention. The balding man was strong - probably as magically powerful as the Overlord himself was back when he had defeated the Wizard - but was still not a major threat and the demi-god dismissed him quickly.

The young girl on the other hand was something of great interest to him. The child did not have much of a physical presence, for she was rather small, except for her vibrantly pink hair. However, unlike the others here who exuded an aura akin to an element like that of fire, water, earth, or wind, she had something else... The Overlord could not put a name to this mysterious energy but it was without a doubt the same one that had powered the portal that brought him here.

So, this little girl was the one who called for him? How amusing.

Now the question was: what exactly did she want from him?

He was here for that very answer.

[...]

Unable to move her legs Louise Francoise simply laid on the ground and once again examined her familiar.

Was he sacred? She wasn't sure about that since she couldn't recognize its - _'His,'_ she corrected herself - armor as belonging to any of the Halkeginian military so his actual status was unknown. And, while he did cut an impressive figure with size and looks, he did not bear himself with sense of regal or nobility but instead like that of a proud but aged warrior. There was also a possibility that his armor, despite its ancient looks, was quite common from wherever he hailed from - who could really say? For all she knew, he could be from a civilization of half-giants on the outer-borders of Germania or beyond Rub Al Khali; places beyond Halkeginia were hardly explored or mapped after all.

Was he beautiful? Not quite. Maybe he had a handsome face underneath, but for now his only beauty was in the fact that his armor - despite being encrusted in red-earth - was quite frighteningly effective at looking absolutely sinister. Compared to the gallant Griffin Knights, the regal Dragon Knights, and the commanding Manticore Knights, his armor seemed to hold a powerful and terrifying pressure in of itself that spoke of doom against all who would be foolish enough to challenge him.

Was he powerful? Well, he was quite big enough to wrestle with even some of the smaller dragons and she wouldn't be surprised if he actually did something like that daily. She couldn't see what laid beneath all of that heavy armor but she imagined it would be a very muscular body. So he was, at the minimal, physically powerful. At the very least, she knew that he would have no trouble squashing her like a bug if he so felt like it.

Regardless, all of that was good enough for Louise Francoise. She hadn't expected to summon anything at all, so this was an absolute god-send. _'Thank The Founder! I did it! I summoned a familiar!'_ she cheered in her thoughts.

It was then that the armored giant folded his arms; his posture was like a waiting guardian demanding to hear an answer.

It was a strange gestured that looked out of place. But, for one reason or another, she definitely had his attention now and she wasn't about to waste it. "I... I am..." her voice started low and then quickly picked up in volume, "I am Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere and I am your Master!" She gulped, almost in regret for blurting that statement out so suddenly without a hint of charisma or nobility and thus ruining her introduction, as she waited for the giant to respond.

The summoned-being almost seemed to have cocked his head and raised a brow, but there wasn't actually any movements on his part.

Louise Francoise's face almost became flustered at the non-response; even the most majestic of beasts instinctively knew that Mages - Nobles - were the superior one within the relationship. The fact that the armored giant - that she had summoned, no less - did not make any real physical or verbal reply was both inherently disrespectful and embarrassing to Louise.

"D-Did you not hear me?!" She piped out in slight anger, only to quickly turn away from the familiar's withering glance directed at her.

"Hah!" A boy's voice cried out from the side-line crowd, "Louise The Zero may have summoned something, but even the familiar can tell she isn't a good enough mage to be a master!" His comment spurred on more cheers and agreements from his fellow students.

Louise gritted her teeth. She needed to take charge, as the Rule Of Steel demanded, and show off her pride and status of Valliere Nobility; she could not back down and reveal weakness. _'By The Founder, I am a mage, a Noble, damn it!'_

"By The Founder, I am a mage, a Noble, damn it!" The girl did not even realized she had repeated her thoughts aloud. Her body moved automatically as she swiftly stood up and pointed her wand threateningly toward the armored giant; amber-colored eyes staring adamantly against sharp glowing blue eyes. "I will not allow you to make a fool out of me!"

[...]

There was fire and drive in the young girl's eyes as she stared at the Overlord without fear of retribution. Fool-hardy, reckless, there were many words to describe her action of even daring to challenge the authority and might of the demi-god.

Luckily for the girl, he was a remarkably calm individual.

Instead, the Overlord found himself somewhat impressed - but mostly nostalgic - at the spirit behind her actions. It had truly been a long time since someone had dared talked back to him like that. Ah, he remembered good old Gnarl - that old brown minion - who was always so humorously snippy with him or even his wife, Rose - that fiery red head - making her not-so-subtle demands at him. It was truly nostalgic to the demi-god; he really missed those days.

The Overlord chuckled inwardly.

He who was known as the Master Of The Dark Tower, the Slayer Of The Seven Heroes, the Ruler Of The Middle-Domains, and lastly the Abyssal Lord... was summoned so that a child could demand for him to be their familiar? It would have been a laughable and outrageous idea to anybody back at the Middle-Domains.

Yet, this was truly happening and, although this situation was rather humorous and somewhat demeaning to the Overlord, it was something that the demi-god was willing to consider.

Yes, the demi-god could just simply walk away a free man and do whatever he wanted, that was certainly one possibility out of many. However, he was someone who knew gratitude; that was simply a part of his nature, to do good to others as he would expect in return and to do good for those who cannot help themselves. That noble characteristic of his was something that stuck with him even when the curse of death had made him lose his memories of his previous life so long ago...

But that was not all there was to it; no, there was definitely a little more to his consideration.

The Overlord was no master of the arcane-arts and his own personal repertoire of spells was actually quite small, but he was still someone who was quite familiarized with the fundamental ways of magic - overlord magic, but magic nonetheless - as he had spent a large portion of his imprisoned time within the Abyss to re-learn all the spells that he had lost when he was forcibly cut-off from the Dark Tower.

Though he was eventually able to reuse all of his old magic, the Overlord was never able to replicate the phenomenon of dimensional travel which the Forgotten God had once created. But, on the other hand, even the Overlord knew that it had taken the Forgotten God untold centuries to even reach a point where it could have attempted to do so.

That is why this little pink-haired girl had caught his caught attention.

She was young, yet was already capable of casting spells on par to that of a god. It was a simple coincidence that he was called but it was no accident that it had happened at all; indeed, the spell she had cast had done exactly what it was suppose to do: summon a familiar from somewhere. In doing so, her spell had fished him out from the Abyss, a place that should have been - by all means - completely sealed off.

With such a vast amount of potential hidden inside her, the girl could easily either become a savior or a destroyer.

Thus the Overlord had every intention to prevent the girl from falling toward the path of destruction as it was his belief that great power came with greater responsibility - and he, of course, still had power.

And so the Overlord made his decision.

[...]

Louise Francoise glared at the armored-giant; she would not and could not back down. By the Rule Of Steel that her mother taught her, once a person made their decision they could simply not go against it and must remain firm to it.

Ironically, that same Rule Of Steel also detested those who act impulsively, which the young Valliere had just done. However, such a small thing was lost to her because she was, right here and right now, staring down a being that could at least physically crush her like an insect.

While the girl had been brought up to believe that Mages reigned supreme against nearly everything, Louise Francoise herself knew that she was hardly what society called a proper mage because of her explosive but still fizzled spells; if she were to get herself into a real fight, she was unsure that she would able to handle five - let alone ten - Commoners when the average Dot-Class Mage could easily handle even thirty on a bad day.

The fact that her teacher stood battle-ready at her side was a small comfort for the young Valliere and she silently thanked him so.

Minutes that felt like hours to Louise Francoise and Jean de Colbert passed by before the warrior finally moved. Though his movement had a deliberate slowness to it, the act itself was still rather suddenly made; in response, the Valliere's muscles tensed up and Colbert tighten his grip around his wooden staff.

The two waited with bated breath as the half-giant slowly kneeled before the strawberry blond girl.

To Jean de Colbert this was an opportunity that could not be passed up. From his many years as an instructor for the Tristain Academy Of Magic he had made a particular observation regarding the Springtime Familiar Summoning: the runes that were embedded onto a familiar could tame even the most wild of beasts within a matter of moments. And even though the summoned warrior had yet to display any hostilities - it was, strangely enough, taking the current event fairly well - it was still better to be safe than sorry; the safety of his students was ranked at an undisputed top-class priority to Jean de Colbert.

"Miss Valliere," the teacher spoke quietly as if a louder voice might startle the half-giant into rage, "I suggest that you complete the ritual and form a contract with your familiar. Now." He prayed deeply for a miracle that the young Valliere would not cause an accidental explosion during the binding; the fact of the matter was that his student was already quite lucky that her previous threat was seemingly ignored by the warrior and Colbert did not need any more scare or trouble than of that level already.

"Y-Yes, Professor," Louise Francoise answered as she inquisitively looked at the warrior who was still taller than her even when he was kneeling. He was an oddity as far she knew, she had never heard of a human being summoned for a familiar - granted, perhaps the monster-half of his mixed-lineage accounted for something?

Well, a half-giant was certainly not as appealing as a griffon, dragon, or manticore, but such a half-blooded person would have to do. Louise Francoise had no plans to fail the Springtime Familiar Summoning after having come so far to this point and she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth now that she was given one to succeed.

"You," she started to address her soon-to-be-familiar but then realized that she didn't even know his name, "...Who are you?" When she received no answer, she continued her prodding, "Answer me... Why won't you speak? Can you not understand what I'm saying?"

"Miss Valliere," her teacher spoke up whilst keeping his impatient out of his voice, "The contract. Please."

The girl nodded and changed the conversation, "Take off your helmet," she told the half-giant. But when the warrior had remained still, Louise Francoise visibly frowned - even though the person was bowing down to her, he was still disrespecting her with his complete inaction.

She was just about ready to complain when Professor Colbert spoke up once again.

"Miss Valliere," this time a small bit of his impatient and anxiousness did leak out from his voice, "A kiss - while certainly the most traditional and easiest way to transfer Willpower into a familiar - is not the only method to form a contract with a familiar. Simply tap the summoning circle with your wand, Miss Valliere, and pour your Willpower into that instead."

"Right," Louise Francoise replied but, when she took a look at the ground, she blinked her eyes and became a bit confused on what to do next, "Um, Professor Colbert..."

Jean de Colbert immediately answered in a slightly exasperated voice, "_What_, Miss Valliere?" He was normally a truly patient man - being a teacher required that of him - but in the face of danger even his patience could run easily thin. His voice, however, caused her to flinch and so he promptly corrected himself, "Ahem," he cleared his throat, "Yes, Miss Valliere? Is there a problem?"

"I..." she stuttered "...well... the summoning circle... it's been destroyed."

_'Oh for the love of...!'_ Colbert groaned inwardly; he would never say that the young Valliere was a problematic person but trouble always seemed to follow the girl around. "Kiss it," he said in a barely restrained tone through gritted teeth, "Kiss your familiar and complete the contract, Miss Valliere."

"On the-"

"On the helmet, _indeed_."

With her answered given so bluntly, Louise Francoise sighed and turned back to face the giant. She licked her lips and swallowed her saliva, with an exhaled breath she began her chant, "I hereby swear by the Oath Of Name, for I am Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere, that my fate shall be entwined with thee and thy fate with my own," her wand danced with graceful movement, "O, Pentagon Of The Five Elemental Powers... I announce: bless this union of balance and fate!"

She moved closer to her kneeling familiar and placed her two hands onto his helm - the metal was surprisingly warm to touch. With a light brush of her hand she swept the forehead clean of dust and leaned forward. Her soft lips touched the unknown metal; the sensation was only mildly unpleasantly and it tasted somewhat gritty.

Louise Francoise's kiss maintained contacted for a full second before she pulled away. She stepped back and wiped her mouth with the back of her sleeve - she wanted to spit out the aftertaste but couldn't do so without ruining her aristocratic image - as she waited for the results of her spell.

Nothing happened.

But then suddenly - before anyone could speak - a bright light appeared from the ground.

The fractured summoning circle, which should have no longer been able to function correctly, glimmered with radiant power and created a beautiful cascading aurora. Tendrils emerged from the mesmerizing scene and quickly attached themselves to the giant's left gauntlet, the phantom limbs greedily snaked through the armor and gathered themselves into the center of the left hand's back. Strange runic letters shone momentarily before they dimmed and faded away from prying eyes.

[...]

The Overlord slowly stood up as he examined and flexed his left hand into a tightly clenched fist.

Due to his physical status - even before becoming a demi-god during his entrapment of the Abyss - there were few who could even pose a remote challenge to the Overlord. Therefore, it was not unusual for his enemies who were hidden in the shadows to resort to dark curses to try and get rid of him. But, after the first few attempts on his life, the Overlord had developed a rudimentary immunity to curses and was even taught by Gnarl on how to defend himself from any that managed to linger on him.

However, the Overlord was no master of the arcane arts, his tactics against curses were essentially the magic equivalent of brute-forcing his way out of the problem.

The unknown runes that had burned themselves onto his flesh and imprinted themselves upon his soul were quite powerful - though not exactly a curse, the runes were close enough in nature to be one. If he were to chop off his hand then the runes would merely move elsewhere on his body; that was simply how much of a nuisance they were.

He could feel the somehow ancient roots of the runes trying to dig further into him in a complex manner, he could feel them trying to change him into something he was not.

With his strength of will the Overlord repelled the mental and spiritual invasion through sheer willpower alone.

His purge sent the roots slithering back to their source but, as expected, he could not destroy the core of the runes; it would take more time for him to annihilate the complex defense just through brute-force alone. For now, at least, he had it subdued and relatively dormant - that was alright, the Overlord would simply deal with the rest later.

The demi-god decided that this new world was slightly less pleasant that he had originally taken it for.

While he had no qualms with serving his little summoner, he certainly did not take kindly to others that tried to subvert his freewill. However, he would forgive her for this slight because he doubted that the girl would know exactly what those runes even did to their subject.

On the other hand, it seemed that the teacher knew quite well what the familiar contract had entailed. Pehaps the Overlord should have a quiet discussion with him later...

For now, he dusted off the dirt that still remained on his armor.

[...]

_'Well now... that was certainly different,'_ Jean de Colbert thought as he watched the magic circle spring back to life and latched themselves onto the giant's left hand. _'Never seen that before in my all years here.'_ He assessed the new situation and calmed himself, _'Danger averted,'_ with a quick cough to clear his throat, the teacher turned to face his student.

He let out a breath of relief and spoke happily, he was quite proud of his student, "Well, Miss Valliere, in your time here you have failed to cast many spells... but, today, you have managed to properly cast Summon Servant and Contract Servant in but one try each," he smiled, "Good work and congratulations, Miss Valliere."

Louise Francoise nodded at her head, "T-Thank you, Professor Colbert."

Meanwhile the crowd of students were busily chatting with themselves.

"Ah, how dull," a male student commented, "So the Zero was able to contract a familiar after all."

"What a surprise," a nearby girl cut in with a snicker, "I didn't think she would have been to summon anything at all in the first place!"

"Heh, I had surely thought that the half-giant would have gone on a rampage," one of the boy's friends stated, "but I guess even a half-breed like that understands that it can't do anything in the presence of us Nobles."

In Halkeginia the Nobles right to rule is taught as the most natural law. For young noble children, they are brought up believing in their absolute superiority over nearly all forms of life and matter due to the fact that they could use magic. Even dangerous beasts such as griffons, manticores, and dragons could be brought to heel because they were mages - that was their logic. That is why these children - and, indeed, many adult mages as well - truly believe that only another user of the arcane could even pose a remote threat to them.

They easily and foolishly dismissed the Zero's Familiar as just another creature who had accepted their natural superiority.

"Hmmm~" Kirche hummed with a hand on her hip, "That is certainly an impressive-looking familiar; don't you think so, Tabby?" she asked her blue-haired friend affectionately.

Tabitha nodded her head quietly with a neutral expression, but to those who knew her quite well - which currently only consisted of Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt Zerbst - they could tell that the girl was quite interested in Louise Francoise's large and armored familiar.

"Half-giant, huh?" The busty girl thought aloud, "I've seen some of them before - there are even a few in service of the Germanian Military - but I've never seen armor of that make before," she tapped her chin, "I don't see the Germanian Crest or any Military Insignia either. I don't believe he's from around here."

Tabitha nodded in agreement. Her blue eyes were focused on one peculiar spot on Louise Francoise's familiar: the left gauntlet. She could clearly see a smooth and round jewel-like surface embedded into it - something that was uncharacteristically far too different from the obviously war-designed armor. She could see no tactical reason to have such an item there... unless it was actually a magical tool of some sort; was it currently inactive or did it provide a passive effect?

A half-giant with a magic-orb and full-plated black armor; Tabitha would have surely heard about this peculiarity if the person in-question was truly from Halkeginia, thus she concluded that this familiar was summoned from beyond the lands of their nation. Whether the warrior was any more or any less than a half-giant had yet to be determined though, she would need to keep a close eye on Louise Francoise's Familiar to unravel this mystery.

"But, to think, a half-giant at school and summoned by a Valliere no less," Kirche sensually licked her lips with a sultry smile, "That would mean he's pretty big, wouldn't it, Tabby? I'm getting rather hot just thinking about how I should steal him from little Louise~"

The academy's top student almost rolled her eyes but instead chose to take a book out from out under her cloak. She flipped it open to the page she had last left off on and continued her reading of A King's Journey.

With the tension gone and a little of his own forgetness added to the situation, Jean de Colbert completely forgot that he needed to record Louise Francoise's Familiar's runes. The middle-aged man pulled out his pocketwatch as he felt a light shiver run down his spine, _'It's just getting late, is all,'_ he perfectly reasoned and took a look at the time, _'Ah, dinner is being served already...'_

Putting his pocketwatch away, the teacher called out to his class, "Dinner is already being served, if you don't want to completely miss it - and I do recommend that you have yourself a light meal before going to bed - then let us make haste back to the school." He chanted a simple spell for levitation and gently floated in the air, "Right then, follow after me, Class."

Several students took after their Professor Colbert and casted Levitate on themselves and their familiars. Others rode on top of their beasts - either they flew back or ran back. A few of them taunted the Zero before they left.

Louise Francoise looked at them enviously before she faced her newly acquired familiar, "We're walking," she said somewhat dejectedly.

[...]

The sun was beginning to set as the Overlord walked slowly and kept pace with his small master toward the castle of stone that could be seen in the distance. He moved quietly despite the fact that his heavy steps flattened the grass beneath his armored boot.

The young Valliere mulled over some things in her head. Her familiar was an oddity: he was a human. Granted, he was apparently a half-giant, but she had never heard of any humanoids - let alone half-breeds - being called forth from the Springtime Familiar Summoning ritual from any of the stories or researched papers that she had read before; as far as she knew, every familiar before him had always been a true beast of sorts.

Louise let out a sigh and glanced at her familiar, "Do you have a name?"

The Overlord did not have a name - or, at least, he no longer went by the name that he was once known by before a certain incident - and was now only known by his title; now and forever. As far as he was concerned, his identity has always been and will continue to be: Overlord.

He knelt down and with a finger carved out the words into the ground for 'Overlord' in Mid-Domainic.

The pink-haired girl stared at her familiar and wondered why he was even bothering to write on the ground, _'Is he... mute?'_ Her lips turned downward slightly; while she was quite aware that she would have to just make do with the familiar she had summoned, it still bothered her that she had called forth something so different. Even a jibberish-blatherer would have been better than a mute, Louise couldn't see any advantages in being unable to speak and considered it an imperfection that made her warrior even less appealing than before.

When her familiar finally stood back up, she looked back to the writings on the ground.

While Louise was no expert in languages she could tell that the words were not written in the common style of Halkeginic, nor in her native Tristainic, and neither were they Germanic, Gallic, or Romalic. Her familiar's writing did bear a passing resemblance to them but were not quite the same.

If she were to try and decipher the unknown writing as they were right now, she would get something pronounced like 'Ophaedravid' in Halkeginic or a 'Suelzeilran' in Tristainic but both were quite meaningless as names.

Louise huffed out a breath of air from the side of her lips and somewhat glared at her knight, "I've no idea what you've written here, Familiar." She sighed, placed her hands on her hips, and then tapped her foot, "I suppose that means I'll need to come up a name for you then."

The young Valliere hummed as she thought, she wanted an impressive name for her familiar that would also sounded exotic but she didn't want to make one up. As she racked her brain, her mind went looking for names in Ancient Halkeginian lore.

Sigurd the dragon-slayer? Beowulf the grendel-hunter? Arngrim the berserker?

Sigwulfgrim? Beowarngurd? Arnigurulf?

...Alright, perhaps she was making-up names at this point. But, in her defense, she did not want to seem so uncreative or unsophisticated as to take a name from a legendary hero and then apply the name as-is onto her familiar.

Louise thought over her ideas and decided that she needed something less obvious.

Her familiar wore big black armor; in Tristainic that would be pronounced as 'grandei armunrei noitrei' or 'armatturamu omagna nigrumunovo' in Halkeginic. If she mixed them up she could get something like 'omagranadei areimattunramu noigrutreinovo,' if she furthered downsized it then she could get a more acceptable 'omgradei arematuramu noigovo,' mix and shorten that again into 'omgrarnitovo,' and then condense-blend that once more into 'Ortovogni.'

_'Ortovogni...'_ Louise humored herself, _'It's not bad per-say but...'_ she looked at her familiar. She wondered if she should just give him a name that was more fitting for something like pet or object rather than give him a more human-esque name. Then something clicked, _'Ah, that's right, I can make a name that's half-real and half-fake!'_

The young Valliere puffed her chest, "I've got it; I've figured out the perfect name for you, Familiar." She smiled, "Hence forth, from now on, your name shall be: Siegeinherd" she added on, "or Sieghart for short."

It certainly sounded nice, the Overlord mused.

Louise went on to explain the source of the name, "Sigurd is a legendary dragon-slayer who used the sword of wrath - Gram; hence 'Sig' and 'urd' for 'Sieg' and 'erd.' Meanwhile, Einherjar are the spirits of dead warriors that have been brought to Valhalla and prepare themselves for the end of the world - Ragnarok; hence 'Ein' and 'her' for 'ein' and 'herd.' Therefore: Siegeinherd." She puffed out her chest even more and gloated, "It definitely sounds like a legendary name doesn't it? It's a great name, if I do say so myself."

Well, a name that was based off of both a dragon-slayer and the warriors prepared for the end of the world was certainly a name that held a great amount of expectations from it. Yes, the Overlord decided, it was indeed a good name - while not quite as immediately impressive as the other titles that he held, it was somewhat refreshing to have a name instead of a title.

The Overlord nodded.

Louise cleared her throat and then brushed back her strawberry blond hair, it seems that she's cheered up somewhat, "Very well then, follow me, Sieghart."

The two continued their once again quiet and wordless walk together.

[...]

As the pair got closer to the large stone-walls, Louise spoke up, "That is the Tristain Academy Of Magic, the most prestigious academy for Nobles in all of Tristain and one of the most world-renowned school with plenty of foreign students attending more so than anywhere else." She was trying to impress to her more-than-likely-not-native-to-this-area familiar just how superior mages were; in her opinion, it didn't hurt to inform him of his status in relation to everything else.

Louise began to recite and tout the information that the Headmaster had used to describe just how safe the academy was from danger along with just how fine of an institute it was for children of nobles to attend.

"The Academy was designed and built entirely by a famous Square-Class Earth Mage known as Bilgames de Mesh; every single building here is constructed from a special rock-type called Urukanite which is stronger than any natural rock that can be found and has also been enchanted to withstand even the most devastating of cannon-fire or square-class spells." Louise smirked, "Stationed here are over one-hundred guards, more than two-hundred servants, and every teacher here are at a minimum of Triangle-Class," and then wagged her finger, "If the academy was to suddenly find itself underseige, it could survive a whole three-months without outside support."

Well, the Overlord would have been lying if said that he wasn't fairly impressed by it; the entire place seemed built more like a fortress than a castle - let alone a school. In a way, you could say that her explanation had left him speechless.

The outer-walls were so high that even if a Rock Giant were to stretch out its arm it would only be a third of the wall's size - the walls could easily keep out a horde of man-eating giants if those existed too. Once the Overlord passed through the open archway gates - and some scared guards - he could also see that the walls were almost as thick as having two rock giants squashed together.

This place was definitely built to last.

Now that he noticed it, the academy's outer-walls were built in the shape of a pentagon - five towers with differently colored roofs were the vital points that created the shape - and the school ground was large enough that the entirety of Heaven's Peak could fit inside with room to spare.

The Overlord's encompassing gaze then panned to the several structures that laid near the heart of the school.

The very center tower pierced the very skies and lorded over even the large outer-walls - its powerful visage reminded him of the Dark Tower and its grand glory. It was further evenly surrounded by three smaller towers that were even lesser in size than the five outside but still quite grand in of themselves because - while the three towers were not quite as high-scraping - they were fairly larger in their circumference.

Louise pointed a finger and continued her explanation.

"That is the Central Tower where the Headmaster can be found in the very top," she glossed over that segment rather swiftly and moved on. Louise took the lead and started to move toward the tower that was to the right-side of the stone-path they were walking on, "And these buildings are the student-dorm," she pointed to the area to the left and behind the Central Tower, "That one is for First-Years and that one over there is for the Third-Years. And _this_," she said as they passed through the dual-doors and two scared guards, "is the Second-Years' Dorm."

The ground-floor - a lobby of sorts - was quite bare. The Overlord could see that there was not much here except for a single administrative desk which sat opposite from the doors, behind the desk sat a person and behind them was a door leading elsewhere. To the sides of the lobby there were two stairways that led to the upper-floors and attached onto the walls were several torches.

The Overlord casually eyed the man who sat bored at his desk - his finger tapped the wooden desk in a repeated rhythm. The adult man was quite simple in appearance with no particular outstanding traits of mention. From what the Overlord could sense, the man was also a mage - though a far weaker one than that Professor Colbert.

The mage quirked a brow when he spotted Louise and the Overlord walk in; he had heard some gossips - by the students who had passed through earlier - talking about how 'the Zero summoned a half-giant.' This must be them, he figured - it was a curious sight for all of the five seconds that they held his attention.

"Greetings, Sir Shernen."

"Greetings, Miss... Valliere, was it?" Albert de Shernen replied back to the strawberry blond girl.

He was a new staff-member that was only recently hired to replace the last Dorm-Keeper who had just left. His total work-time only amounted to a week, so while he could vaguely recognize the one-hundred students who came in and out during his shift, he didn't really make any effort to knowing their names.

Shernen's job was merely to watch and make sure that students didn't bring in things they weren't suppose to nor take out things that they were not allowed to. It was a fairly simple but boring task that had him sitting behind a desk for the most part. But it paid quite well and being able to say that he had worked as a guard - technically not a lie - at the Tristain Academy Of Magic was also worth some reputation points.

Louise nodded her head at the dorm-keeper and then turned back to her familiar - greeting Albert de Shernen was merely a formality that she upheld because she was a Valliere. "To the left are the female-dorms and to the right are the male-dorms," she said as she walked towards the left staircase.

The master and familiar pair continued up several flight of stairs and eventually arrived at - from what the Overlord counted - the sixth-floor. Just like every floor before it, besides the first bottom-floor, the sixth-floor was no different from the rest: it was comprised of a long hallway with five doors - two on one side and three on the other - and torches to light up the darkened passage.

"This is my room," Louise stated as she pulled out a key from her skirt-pocket and unlocked the middle-most door. She turned the golden-colored knob, opened the door, and walked in. Several seconds later she came back out of her room with a confused expression, "What are you waiting for, Sieghart? Your bed" which was just a stack of hay but, in her defense, she had expected to summon a more traditional familiar and it was already too late in the night to simply alter the sleeping arrangements, "is in here."

Well now, this was a constant problem for the Overlord.

The academy's archway gates were large enough for an army to march out in uniform order, the dual-doors to the dorm-tower were quite large that a dragon - by Halkeginian standard - could fit through, and the stairways had enough space so that a normal master and familiar could walk side-by-side with another master and familiar.

However, the single door to Louise's room - and by extension every other door in this dorm - were designed for a normal-sized person.

The Overlord could probably get into the room if he tucked himself in and worked his way in slowly, but that would make him look too nonsensical and he had a bit too much pride for that. Likewise, it would just be too much of a hassle for him to waddle day in and day out.

The young Valliere, of course, immediately noticed her familiar's dilemma and sighed, "...I see, you're too big fit through the door." While he was not necessarily as big as a dragon, griffon, manticore, or a pure-blooded giant, he was still fairly too large; standard protocol would therefore dictate that her familiar would have to sleep outside at the Austri Court along with the other huge familiars.

That, however, did not solve the particular problem that her familiar would need to remove his armor to sleep. It would not be strange if pieces of his armor had vanished during the dead of night.

On the other hand, her familiar wasn't exactly human. He was a half-giant, and if she remembered anything about their culture, they tended to be quite barbaric and warrior-like, so perhaps... "Sieghart," she called out, "do you, perhaps, prefer to sleep in your armor?"

As a matter of fact, the Overlord could sleep and even sit down on a chair with his armor on and feel absolutely no discomfort. His armor was quite comfortable for him to wear because it was designed and forged specifically for his use. That was also to not forget the fact that the Overlord's armor was made purely from Abyssuim, which far surpassed even the enchanted urukanite, and it was further enchanted by life-force - thousands and thousands of life-force - and could make even a elder dragon's fiery breath feel like a cool morning breeze. If he could help it, the Overlord would much prefer to keep his armor on at all times.

The demi-god nodded.

Louise's lips curled up slightly, "Good, that's one problem solved. Now then, would you prefer to sleep out here in the hallway or outside with all the other familiars at the Austri Court?"

While there were no explicit problems with sleeping outside - he highly doubted that his little master would be in any sort of danger even if he wasn't by her side, the Overlord found the stone floors and walls to be more welcoming of a spot - he was someone that was use to the cold comfort of a stone room.

The Overlord remained where he stood.

"The hallway then," Louise commented. As long as she did not throw out a hay-bed or provide him with an actual bed then there should be no problem with her familiar sleeping out in the hallway. "Very well," she nodded, "Good night, Sieghart."

She gave her familiar one last look; a hand of hers reached out and touched his warm black armor, as though she needed to confirm that the knight was not just a figment of her imagination. With that done, she walked back into her room and closed the door shut with a light thump and a click of the lock.

[...]

_Night..._ the passage when the sun's light wanes and fades into dusk, the moment where darkness would descend and embrace all in its coldness, the realm where the moon and stars dominated for half of a world's time.

For many, the cycle of night was a phenomenon as natural as the expectation that the sun would always rise in the morning. They did not necessarily take it for granted but they did not necessarily savor such common events.

For the Overlord that had also once been true. But now the demi-god could appreciate the fall of the sun and the rise of the moon. In the Abyss there was no concept of night or day, nor any existence of any celestial bodies like the sun or moon, there was only heat that baked everything within that hell; it was a world that thrived in its own infernal and was more akin to an elemental plane of fire.

Therefore, this was the Overlord's first night in many unknown years.

A sense of nostalgia and longing coursed through the demi-god's body. He had already spent an untold amount of time asleep and forgotten in the Abyss, he felt that it would be such a waste for him to simply sleep this new night away.

Ten minutes passed by with naught an activity in the hallway. Thus the Overlord made his decision, he was - a manner of speaking - too excited to simply fall asleep, he would explore the school as a way to pass the time and to slowly calm himself down.

The Overlord moved like a ghost; contrary to his large size, his footsteps only made soft thuds with the stone floor. His light steps' every noise was as similar to a quiet whisper - it reverberated amongst the dimly torch-lit halls as a phantom-weight that sent shivers to anyone who would hear it.

He traveled upward and eventually reached the twelfth-floor but a door impeded his path and actually prevented him from going any further. He could sense that someone lived on this floor but there was no value for him to break down the door just to see who it was.

He walked back down to lobby and found nobody there. The door behind the desk apparently led to the dorm-keeper's room as he could detect Albert de Shernen's magic signature there. Outside, even the two guards from before had simply vanished.

How sloppy, the Overlord shook his head.

Even though this was a school - and thus did not expect much danger - they were still aristocrats, were they not? At least, in the Middle-Domains, the typical aristocrat had plenty of enemies both seen and unseen and danger always lurked about.

He was not well-informed about how the guards did their rotation of duty or where they were assigned, but it had an unbelievable amount of openings that could be easily exploited even from the unskilled - such as the Overlord who was by far personally useless in the aspect of stealth.

He wasn't sure if they were peaceful idiots or if that was completely intentional by design.

Whatever the case, the Overlord continued his nightly exploration.

He traversed the vast grassy fields of the school grounds. To the back of the Central Tower there were the Servant Quarters and the Horse Stable. The area near the Servant Quarters was apparently the Austri Court as he could see the many larger familiars were gathered here. The areas to the immediate left and right of the court consisted of more grass but the space directly opposite of it contained several circular stone areas that appeared to be dueling platforms of sorts.

He rounded the perimeter once more and eventually entered the outer-tower that sat further behind the Central Tower.

Surprisingly, he found that the doors were not locked. Truly sloppy. Then again, even the dual-doors to the dorms where the students slept were not locked; such a thing should such surprise him anymore.

The Overlord strolled into the tower with barely any trouble at all. The lowest level was just like the lobby-area of the dorms, however was also just a bit different. Just like the before there were torches on the walls and two stairways to the left and right that led upward, but - instead of a desk - there was a third staircase.

His investigation of it proved fruitless though as it was surprisingly blocked by a locked door. It somewhat confused the demi-god how the main-building themselves did not seem to be locked yet certain areas inside of them were.

With a change of direction the Overlord made way to one of the other two stairways from the lobby. He moved up the building but ignored the the other set of stairs that would have lead him further upward, and instead took the closest exit which led him out into a long hallway.

He followed the long pathway and entered - from one of two doorways - into a large semi-circular room. To the Overlord's immediate left there was another administrative desk, beyond that the floor rose in an even-patterned layer with five wide wooden-desks and chairs positioned on each level - for a total of five raised layers with twenty-five desks and chairs - along with three windows that were currently covered by their curtains.

It was a rather curious design to the Overlord as he had never seen it before. Apparently the speaker would stand at the bottom while the audience would sit at the upper-rows. It was the exact opposite from his normal experience where the audience - such as him - would sit upon their throne surrounded by their aides - such as Gnarl and Rose - while they would look down upon the speaker.

As he furthered went upward he discovered two more rooms just like the previous one. But, as expected, he could not inspect anymore of the tower - the upper-floors were blocked to him and, likewise, the other half of the areas next to the semi-circular rooms were also beyond his reach. However, he could detect the presence of other - mostly non-magical - life in those undisclosed locations; it seemed that guards were highly concentrated at the outer-towers during the night.

With nothing left here for him to explore - that did not require him to break something down, the Overlord made his exit out of the tower.

The demi-god narrowed his eyes as he walked out onto the grassy field and stopped. A subtle but unnatural wind poked and prodded his armor and examined him with their gentle caress. Whoever was performing this spell was quite good; though he was able to sense magic, the amount of mana used to cast this spell was so little that it was hardly noticeable amongst the pure rich mana that filled the air around him.

He had almost not noticed the intrusion of his personal space. _Almost_.

Long, long ago - when the Overlord had fought against the Evil Wizard - he had all of his magic stolen from him, which had almost ripped out his entire soul as well. He had not noticed it at first - indeed, he had not figure it out until much later when Gnarl had pointed it out to him - but such an event had changed and scarred him: he had gained an increased sensitivity to the magic and mana around him, along with an unexpected growth to his own natural affinity to cast spells.

The Overlord snorted, he could feel the manipulated-mana all around him as though he was coated in a thin layer of silk, it was harmless but still a nuisance - he would not allow his stalker to think that they could touch him as they pleased. He began to purposely leak out his mana into the surrounding and the air burned up as a protective wave of magical heat enveloped him.

Unable to reach the demi-god, the unnatural winds abruptly stopped and then simply vanished.

After several moments, the Overlord released his spell and waited for another attempt but none had come.

It was unfortunate but the Overlord could not trace the magic-winds back to their source, that was simply beyond his skills. If he still had his Minions with him then he would have caught this stalker in no time...

With that one somber thought the Overlord decided that this was enough exploration for the night, it was time for him to return to his little master's side.

As the demi-god made his way back, he spotted a female kneeling down on both knees - her back faced him - as she hummed a peaceful tune and watered a section of the immense flower garden that encircled all around the Central Tower.

She did not wear the typical cloak and pendant that seemed to define all mages here nor did she wear the leatherish armor that the guards used. She was clearly of a different occupation and class than the aforementioned two.

From his position the Overlord could determine that the young lady had short neck-length black hair and wore a long black-dress with folded white-cuffs, a white frilly-apron, brown boots, and a white headpiece that looked like a crown. He had seen that type of attire before at Heaven's Peak Castle and his Dark Tower as well - if he remembered correctly, Gnarl and Rose had called this a 'maid uniform' that was worn by female servants called 'maids.'

It was only mild curiosity that made him walk over to her.

The soft but undeniable crunch of the grass beneath the Overlord's boots foretold of his coming.

The maid paused in her activity and then stopped as she placed the watering-can besides her. She placed her hands on her knee and then stood up, she turned around and was about to call out to her unexpected guest but then clammed up when all she saw were the darkness all around and two glowing but towering eyes that just stared down at her.

Had she encountered a ghost? Was she about to be spirited away? Was she just about to become a helpless victim to the world of phantoms? The young woman's mind raced with the many horror stories she had heard when she but a tiny child - the outcomes were never pleasant.

In the sky a cloud slowly drifted away and her unknown guest was dramatically revealed piece-by-piece by the moonlight.

A giant of a person that was covered in black armor stood before the maid.

The servant squeaked; it was as though he had simply materialized right in front of her. It took a while for her to regain control. She gripped the hem of her apron and dress, she forced a smile onto her face and was the first to speak, "U-Um, excuse me," she said as politely as she could, "Forgive me if I'm wrong, but... perhaps you are... the half-giant warrior summoned by Miss Valliere, c-correct?"

The maid dreaded for her safety.

As far as she knew, half-giants were rather fierce with the women that caught their fancy and there was little to nothing the maid could do if one decided to take her. It was even worst with the case of a familiar half-giant because - as she was a servant to the academy - she would be required to _service_ and fulfill the _needs_ of the familiar or otherwise face the wrath of a Noble. She could, of course, always quit and leave but that wasn't possible if a half-giant simply _forced_ the issue beforehand.

She truly dreaded for her safety.

Meanwhile, the Overlord got a better look at the female servant.

A small blue jewel was attached at the base of her neck - in front of her white collar - and had a orange-yellow cravat fastened underneath it. Her eyes appeared to be a shade of dark-blue that was very similar to almost being gray. The form of her body was fairly shapely and befitting of a young woman at or near the age of adulthood. Meanwhile, the shape and form of her face had a tinge of foreignness to it - though he was not exactly sure what it was that made her seem different.

In terms of beauty the maid would be slightly above average. In other words: she was not captivating to gaze upon but she not unpleasant to look at either.

It was quite awkward for the maid when Valliere's Familiar did not answer her at all and the silence continued on.

Once again, the female servant spoke up first, "I-I am Siesta of Tarbes and, as you can see, I am maid in s-service to the school," she spoke with a twitching smile, "Is there anything I can d-do for you, um, _Sir Knight_?" Inside she hoped that the half-giant would just leave her alone already; she wanted to run away but such an act would probably excite - rather than incite - him.

Silence continued to reign between them, it was so quiet that the sound of the chirping insects and the snore of the nearby sleeping beasts could be easily heard.

Moonlight was wasting and Siesta still had duties to perform. _'Oh Founder, save me,'_ she prayed. Her choices came down to two: she could either risk the half-giant at night or risk the Nobles at morning. It was a difficult choice for Siesta, as that ultimately came down to whether she valued her purity or her job more.

The maid gulped.

With her family's current situation, money was an absolute necessity - it was the very reason she took up being a maid here and worked both a day and night shift. Likewise, Siesta could not afford to be fired or just quit from Tristain Academy Of Magic as information like that would forever shame her in the eyes of Nobles; an uppity-commoner would never be able to find a decent job again and there were very few Commoner-businesses that could pay her as well as this school did - if she could get in and work there, anyways.

_'Oh dear Founder, protect me!'_

Siesta bowed her head and spoke as smoothly as she could, "W-Well, if you don't need anything from me, Sir Knight, then please excuse me... I need to get back to work. Good night," sadly, her throat choked near the end and caused her to cough, "AAhemm...!" With a flustered expression the maid quickly knelt back down, picked up the watering can, and continued her current task of watering the garden.

She tried to hum a song but it was not quite as peaceful sounding like the one from before.

The Overlord chuckled in the inside, the girl's reaction was something he had experienced many times before. However, there was one notable difference: she continued to work diligently. Many of times the servants would merely excuse themselves and leave; this was the first time that someone had bothered to keeping working in his presence.

Siesta trembled,_ 'Why hasn't he left yet? Don't tell me?! Is... is he staring at my behind? Is... is he imagining about ripping off my clothes and then pushing his large self onto me?!'_ Wild scenarios ran through the maid's mind. Amusingly though, the products of her imagination were primarily based upon the many raunchy and risque novellas and novels that she often read in her free-time.

She squirmed yet grew warm under her own vivid imagery.

"U-Um...! T-The moons are b-beautiful today, a-a-aren't they?!"

She tried to start a conversation to push the direction of her thoughts elsewhere but she did not succeed as she simply imagined a deep and powerful baritone voice that could seduce her under the moonlight.

However, the Overlord paused as he singled out and dissected the maid's word.

He shifted his head upward looked into the sky but saw nothing. He then slowly turned around and a hint of blue entered the corner of his eyes, soon more and more blue filled his vision and eventually even red was within his sight. Every muscle within his body twitched at what he saw.

Up high in the night sky, amongst the brilliant stars, there were _two_ moons - one red and one blue - side by side in orbit for all to see.

It was always a possibility, he knew, but this now confirmed it.

He subconsciously clenched his fists in discomfort.

The Overlord had been freed from the Abyss... but he was nowhere near home and this was not his world.

* * *

**Author Notes**

Hello there, readers!

To my new readers (of this story or otherwise), thank you for reading this story and I hope you'll enjoy it!

Now then, to my old and returning readers of Zero's Noble Overlord, I really have to apologize to you all. Zero's Noble Overlord was the first story I had ever posted on FanFiction and at around 125000 words, more than 250 Reviews, about 400 Favorites, and nearly 400 Follows, it was also one of my most biggest and most popular stories (in fact, ZNO has been getting Favs and Fols despite the lack of updates; which is a very pleasant surprise especially because around 200 Favs and 200 Fols have occurred since the last update).

However, Zero's Noble Overlord was also therefore my earliest experimental story in terms of, well, _everything_. As I wrote more stories, I eventually figured out what kind of writing style and narrative began to suit me best. Finally, I just began to hit the point were ZNO's style didn't come to me as naturally as it use to and writing a new chapter felt like I had to fake my old one just to match.

But I was always hesitant to label Zero's Noble Overlord as either in a Hiatus or Discontinued because I had yet to actually give up, become tired of the story, or truly become pulled away from it. So now while I'm quite sad to announce that - with the release of this reboot - ZNO is officially going under as Discontinued, I am also quite happy to announce that the reboot _is_ (of course) finally here and the story of the little pinked-haired girl and her demi-god familiar has returned.

Once again, I really want to apologize to leaving you readers and this adventure for hanging so long until now. While I also would like to say that I'm back but I'm unfortunately a bit of a story-hopper...

Thank you for reading, reviewing, favoriting, following, and whatever else!

* * *

**World Notes**

_This segment shall be dedicated to explaining the differences between Zero's Noble Overlord and Strawberry And Knight that I feel like pointing out (or has been requested by reviewers). It shall also be used to explain additional background stuff whenever I feel like it._

_Loads of bonus information but not necessary to read to enjoy the main-story. Please feel free to skip._

_[...]_

Height: Originally, in Zero's Noble Overlord, I had placed the Overlord at around 12-feet tall because due to some camera angles he can end up easily more than twice the size of the average person in the Overlord game (how tall the average person is in the Middle-Domains is an entirely different matter too...). After a bit more reviewing, for Strawberry And Knight, I have decided to make the Overlord around 8'5-feet tall with his armor on (no, that's not inflated from his generally spiky helmet either), so he's still impressively taller - and not to forget also overall larger - than most people.

Comparatively, I'm going to say that the average Halkegenian Male is around 5'3ft tall and that Mages tend to be at least one-to-two inch taller than their Commoner counterpart at 5'5ft; further comparatively, the average Germanian Male is about one-to-two inch taller and their mages are around one-to-three inch taller (so 5'5ft to 5'8ft average). Meanwhile, Halkegenian Females tend to be around one-inch shorter than the average male (so 5'2ft to 5'4ft, with Germanian Females at 5'4ft to 5'7ft).

Basically, the Overlord is (if I'm not wrong) about 3-heads taller than the average Male Halkegenian and nearly 4-heads taller than the average Female Halkegenian and still - of course - too large to enter your typical Halkeginian household without damaging something.

However, just for fun, I want to mention that Louise (who is often called little) is canonically - at least according to the Familiar Of Zero Wikia - 5'4ft tall (165cm) which is actually fairly average for a female in the real world, Tabitha is about 4'7ft tall (142cm), and Kirche is about 5'6ft tall (171cm). But in Strawberry And Knight their respective heights are going to be 5ft, nearly 4'7ft, and 5'7ft (though exact measurements will probably never be given in the actual story).

_[...]_

Language: In terms of pronunciation and accents Tristainic is sorta French, Germanic is sorta German, Gallic is sorta Italian, Romalic is sorta Romanian, Albianic is sorta Welsh, and Halkeginic is sorta Latin. Mid-Domainic is sorta English (though the Overlord has no trouble understanding other languages because of magic).

In terms of writing, the lettering for Halkeginic is sorta Greek overall but especially true for Tristainic and Albianic. Germanic writing has some Macedonian, and Romalic has some Yiddish. Meanwhile, Mid-Domainic is sorta Russian with Serbian.

_[...]_

Mythology: In Strawberry And Knight, Ancient Halkeginia lore - before the times of the Founder - is primarily based from real-world Norse, however is also mixed with a few other real-world mythologies (such as Roman) when the Founder did appear and united the different (but then still tribal) countries.

_[...]_

Stones: There a large variety of real-life minerals, stones, and metals; however, I am no expert in them so I'll be using (mostly) fake variants if and when I need to name them.

_[...]_

Tristain Academy Of Magic: The Center Tower (Center-Dot) surrounded by the Dorms (Middle-Triangle) and then the Outer-Walls (Outer-Pentagon) was actually something I had originally designed for use in Zero's Noble Overlord (and any other future The Familiar Of Zero fics) as a way for me to comprehend the school's layout (and add extra extravagance and maybe perhaps a feeling of excessive decadence).

As far as I can tell, canonically, there's the outer-walls, the five towers that each represent an element (with four of them have bridges that are connected to the center tower), a servant's quarter, a stable, and the central tower.

The Headmaster's Office, the Artifact Vault, and the place where the Ball Of Frigg is held is apparently inside the Central Tower, meanwhile the classes are held inside the Five Towers. That of course leaves me rather confuse on where everything else, such as the large bath, the kitchen, the large dining room, dorms, etc.

The school - as far as I know - has canonically around 300 students (three tables that can seat 100 student each, each table is reserved for a single year), guess-work wise perhaps more than 12+ (I assume that there's one for all the elements except Void and one for each year, so 4+4+4) teachers along with at least 50-100 servants, but I don't recall ever seeing or reading about any normal guards. At a population of less than 500, it's hard to imagine most of them fitting inside the Central Tower for nearly everything (again, that includes their dorms and such).

Therefore, I am using this 'Pentagon to Triangle to Dot' design to divide things more easily.

I had originally not used this idea before because when I had drawn the designs I had also included all of the bridges (even for Void, which shouldn't have one). However, the bridges intersected with at least one of the dorm towers, but if I tried to rotate them while keeping the balanced aesthetic of a triangle then one of them would have been built directly on the path that led straight to the Central Tower.

So it was either: 'Don't use a bridge for Void' or 'Don't use this idea at all.'

This time I settled for the third option: 'Don't use bridges.'

_[...]_

Dorms: In Strawberry And Knight, there are 300 Students and 3 Dorms with the separation at 100 Students per year and per dorm. Therefore the Dorms are divided into 10 Floors (not including the bottom-floor or the two top-floor) with ten students living per floor, which is then further split in half between male and female. Because the students are nobles, they each get their own private room and each room is quite grand - their room consists of a personal-bathroom, a closet-room, a dedicated bedroom, and a sizable living room.

_[...]_

Moons: In Zero's Noble Overlord, I had chosen the color of the moons to be blue and green as I enjoyed the gentle atmosphere of it. However, this time, I chose the canonical red and blue due to the contrast of alien-ness between them.


	2. Move Strong And Carry On

**_Strawberry And Knight_**

Chapter Two

_Move Strong And Carry On_

_[To Overcome All Obstacles]_

* * *

A scene came into view of a campfire that burned and crackled.

There was but only one occupant within its warm embrace. A gladiator who was quite bigger than most sat hunched forward on his logged seat. His face was obscured by his dented and worn helmet and he simply watched the flames dancing in the dark night.

Foot-steps came from behind him and he slowly turned around.

"Greetings, my fellow comrade-in-arm!" a youthful man with short blond-hair and clear light-blue eyes said with a saluting gesture, "Are you ready? For tomorrow we strike our foe at the heart of his lair!" He was dressed in knightly armor that was as black as the darkness around it with gold trims and emblems here and there to outline the armor's form. "Still awake because of the pre-battle jitter?" He had a kite-shield strapped to his back and an enchanted sword sheathed on his hip. "Well, fear not, for I and your fellow friends shall be with you!"

He was certainly a talkative fellow.

The Gladiator grunted and turned back to the fire.

The newcomer huffed out a breath and smirked, he placed his one hand on his hip and shook his head, "Now, don't be like that. You know I was only joking." Was he? The Gladiator wasn't all too certain. "I mean _you_ - of all people - being scared? Hah! That would be a tall-tale to tell!"

The black armored knight strolled over and took a seat next to his silent companion.

"I want to thank you, my dear friend. If it were not for you, I would not have been able to reclaim my rightful place as King Of Heaven's Peak," he grinned widely, "When we finally defeat that dastardly Overlord, what do you say about joining me as I hold the grandest party in all the lands? We will feast, we will drink, we will surround ourselves with pretty women, but - most importantly of all - we will celebrate our victory!" and held out his hand.

The Gladiator sat still for awhile but he eventually shook the given the hand.

The scene suddenly changed.

The Gladiator was falling down a near endless chasm.

"Friends, leave him be!" he could hear the voice of the black knight crying out sorrowfully from the world above, "Let him sleep, he has earned his rest..."

The scene quickly shifted once more.

Up high on a stairway, looking down upon the Gladiator, was a man at the end of his forties or perhaps near his fifties with medium slicked-back blond-hair, greasy skin, numerous wrinkles, and almost sleepless looking eyes. He wore a long red-robe that had some protection to his shoulder and chest and wielded a long staff in both of his hands.

"You?!" the man dramatically gasped, "Didn't we leave you for dead at that godforsaken tower?!" and then he cowardly ran away without warning, "Why?! Why are you back now?!"

The scene morphed into something else again.

The robed-man was now slumped over, dying in an almost crucified manner, on a grand stairway. His face was scrunched up in sheer disbelief as his body pulsed grotesquely all over, "How can this be...?! The Wizard said that I was suppose to be free...! And you... You were suppose to be...! The promised celebration, it was... it... I...! Why?! Why are you aallliiiivvvvveeeee?!" he wailed and convulsed sickly.

The Gladiator quirked a brow, he ignored the tingling and nagging sensation of regret and reluctance that he felt at the back of his mind. The delirious ramblings of this dying stranger made no sense but mattered little for his end was nigh.

The warrior could hear cheering all around him as he lifted his blade and roaring applause as he thrusted the sword into the lustful King Of Heaven's Peak.

And so another one of the Seven Heroes perished by his sword.

[...]

The Overlord opened his eyes and awoke to find himself in a stone hallway - his back to it with him sitting down. He quickly recalled where he was - in the Second Years' Dormitory - where he sat opposite to his little master's room.

When was it the last time that he had dreamt?

Dreams never came to him in his days trapped within the Abyss. And this dream was certainly an oddity - if not a rarity, it was the first dream he ever had of his past... a fragment of the time when he was known as the Gladiator - The Eighth Hero.

He had known that fact long ago. He had discovered the truth when his predecessor had gloated to him - when the previous overlord revealed how he had revived him from the brink of death and then used him to kill his former comrade-in-arms.

The Overlord knew that but he couldn't necessarily comprehend it; he had lost his memories and felt no attachment to his previous life. As far as the Overlord was concerned, the him from the past and the him now were two separate entities.

But the Gladiator of the days gone by and the Overlord of the days now here were still connected.

The demi-god had heard many stories from Gnarl about the man who was born as a mere warrior-slave, forever fighting until the day he would die in a certain coliseum of death and decay... Yet he found his freedom one day and embraced the vast world. But it continued to be a cruel world and constantly shunned him. Still, he strove to make his life worth something, with all his power he became a hero and so fought to bring justice to the weak.

But, in the end, the Gladiator died first during the collapse of the Dark Tower and was quickly forgotten by those he had helped and even by his close allies who would all later be tempted and corrupted by sin.

It was from that corpse - that shadow of the end - of the Eighth Hero which would cast the shape of the current Overlord.

The demi-god grumbled as he stood up.

However, this dream meant nothing now. If given another chance, the Overlord would gut Sir William The Black all over again, as there would be no redemption for that lustful paladin; there were no do overs.

The Overlord clenched his fist.

There were no do overs... he, too, had to accept that.

So much time has since passed that both Rose and his child were now long gone, he was a relic with his legacy as dust in the wind, and he was undoubtedly in a different world altogether. He was bitter, he had regrets, and he would mourn for his lost, but he would not wallow and waste away in despair - he had already done that for too long in the Abyss.

He was here now in this new world and the only path from here on out was to move forward.

From Ruler Of The Middle-Domains to a meager Familiar... The Overlord would just have to make the best of it.

[...]

Morning slowly crept up Louise's window, however her dark-blue curtains blocked out any invading sunlight.

The young Valliere slept peacefully on her large bed, which was easily big enough for three people to rest on their backs without even touching one another.

The bed was made out of wood - a luxurious item since most objects were made with Earth Magic - from Gallia's finest Resitoumire Trees and handcrafted by the very best and respected woodworking family in all of Tristain, the L'nortinale Family. The canopy draped with royal blue curtains, the snow white mattress and pillows, and the dark royal blue blanket were all of the highest quality as well.

Grand and ornate, this sort of extravagant bed was the standard amongst the Upper-class Nobles. For Louise this bed was only a tad more uncomfortable compared to the ones back home.

Besides the girl's bed was an equally finely crafted wooden drawer and atop the furniture were two objects.

One was a Magical Lamp of Germanian-make - a simple but enchanted tool that would turn on and off with a simply double-clap of the hands.

The second though was an odder and cruder looking construct. It was round with a sort of button on its head and stood on three tiny legs. Its face was made of clear glass which portrayed the ticking inside with its three arrows of different sizes - two of an intricate black design and one of a simple line red. There were black numbers decorated on the inner white surface, they were of the Halkeginic-persuasion with the number thirteen chiefly in the center top and the numbers one through six to its left and seven to twelve to its right.

By all appearance it was a clunky looking thirteen-hour alarm clock.

And, indeed, that was what it was.

This clock was a unique invention created by Professor Colbert... unique mostly because it yet to catch on amongst the masses. On the other hand, it truly was unique because it was completely handcrafted with no use of magic whatsoever and was not enchanted either - it worked completely of its own mechanic. This particular model also happened to be the Professor's best work - sturdy in construction and unlikely to malfunction - he had yet to make another quite like it.

Still, it was a gift that he was more than happy to give away to the young Valliere when she had once informed him of her troubles at waking up in the morning.

It wasn't as if Louise couldn't wake up on time. It was quite the opposite really, she would always wake up right on time. The problem was that pinkette was more than likely be in a absentminded daze for a good fifteen-to-twenty minutes and wouldn't even realize that she was actually awake.

It was not much of a problem for her back home as she could have simply had a servant wake her up slightly earlier than usual.

Here, at the Tristain Academy Of Magic, though, was a bit more of a problem. The servants belonged to the school and worked on a very tight schedule. Certainly, the students could have them clear their clothes or bring them food upon nearly any time of the day... but they ultimately had very little power over the servants since the need of the entire school superceded their own.

There were, of course, still some amount of students willing to throw around their statuses as Nobles to get the common staff to do whatever it was that they wanted, but Louise was not like them.

Or, rather, she could not be like them even if she wanted to.

Louise had little aptitude in magic, such a thing was no secret to her family. Her mother, in fact, had no plans to let her attend Tristain Academy Of Magic in the first place due to this knowledge - instead, the original idea was to have Louise Francoise home-schooled into the perfect wife so she could marry into a quality Noble Family.

It was only by an unusual and uncharacteristic display of courage from Louise's part that she was able to compromise - indeed, that was the word: compromise - with her mother and so several conditions were attached for her to even attend the school.

One such condition was that she could not have servants attend to her for any more than what was set by the school. That is, unless she was willing to hire them as her personal handservant - which she could not afford.

Thus, Louise had an alarm clock to wake her up.

_"!CRAKITAUKORCRATIKKKIEIEIETTEUCRACRATITKCRAKITA!" _

A very annoying alarm clock that sounded as though it would explode at any moment - even though it most assuredly wouldn't, since it had already lasted her an entire year before, it was unlikely to break this year too.

The incessant noise promptly awoke the sleeping girl from her slumber. Her quick response as usual was to not to push the button - which only worked one out of twenty times when pressed - but to grab the object and smack it against the drawer until the infernal ringing racket stopped. With a display of casual violence and a vice-like grip that would a grown man wince for his precious jewels, Louise bashed the clock against her drawer until it finally stopped by the sixth knock.

She grumbled to herself, "Wretched contraption..." It was effective in waking her completely up but it was still unbearably annoying even after she had a year of dealing with it.

Without further ado, she got off her bed, slipped on her slippers, and walked into her personal bathroom.

The inside of the bathroom would not look out of place in any modern-world setting. A sink and faucet under a mirror, a large tub that could run water, a toilet that could flush; many of these conveniences were constructed and enchanted through the creative use of Water and Earth Magic - Tristain Academy Of Magic was truly a prestigious school with such high-class commodities.

With a quick shower and a swift drying, Louise strode back into her room with naught but a towel to keep her decent. She walked straight to her dresser and took out the appropriate pieces for her school uniform.

Delicate white underwear went on first, then her white long-sleeved blouse was buttoned, next her black skirt and thigh-highs were pulled up, her black loafers were shoed in, and finally her black cloak was fastened under her gold pendant with a red lace.

Lastly now, a look in the mirror, a moment to brush her hair, a quick application of perfume, and the acquisition of her wand and keys, Louise was finished with her daily morning routine.

She was now presentable as a Valliere should always be.

Prim and proper for all of the day's matters; 'Prime ete arorie pourep toute les qestins de la jolrine' as the Tristainnians would say.

Louise calmly opened the door and then stopped mid-step as she blinked her eyes,_ 'By The Founder, why is there a half-giant in the hallway?!'_ It took her several moments to blink her confusion away and recollect her thoughts, "O-Oh, that's right..." she muttered to herself, "You are... you are Siegeinherd, the familiar I summoned yesterday..."

The Zero had summoned a familiar... even she herself had some trouble believing it.

Repeating her action from last night, Louise reached out a hand and touched the knight's black armor - she once again confirmed that he was physically there; he was not a figment of her imagination or an illusion of a dream. _'He's real...'_ she thought as she looked upward to him and he downward to her, _'He's really here.'_

With that satisfaction in mind, Louise cleared her throat and brushed back her hair, "Ahem, well, Sieghart... A good morning to you; let us-" Before she could finish her words though, within the corner of her eyes, she caught sight of the door to their right opening up.

From out of the other room came her rival: Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt Zerbst.

Blazing long red hair that billowed like living fire and dull blood-red eyes, Kirche wore her blouse loosely with the top few buttons undone to flaunt the tantalizing flesh of her large breasts. Around her neck was a bronze-shined-to-gold ringlet choker and the cloak was wrapped around her without the use of her pendant - the gold emblem was instead laying just above the valley of her breasts. And her footwear were thigh-reaching brown leather-like boots of a certain high-class Germanian brand.

By all appearance of her curvaceous body and haughty attitude, Kirche was both a seductress and a temptress.

If someone told the Overlord that she was a succubus then he wouldn't have been surprised either - though he knew she was not.

The Germanian girl had walked out from her room with a smile which then evolved into a smirk when she spotted the young Valliere. The two did not normally meet in the morning as the pinkette would typically leave the dorm a tad earlier than she did.

"Good morning to you, Louise~" Kirche purred in a tone that promised sweet and sensual erotica to the listener.

Though, to Louise, the voice sounded more like a Germanian Hussy that enjoyed taunting her as a reminder that she was everything that Louise was not. An adult body and voice along with a high aptitude in magic... Kirche was everything that the young Valliere wished to be; Louise's child-like body and explosive spells were not things that she took pride in.

The strawberry blond's first and natural response was to scowl before she spoke in a near growl, "Good morning, Zerbst; what do you want?"

"My, Louise, is there a problem with me saying hello?"

"Of course; you're a Zebst, you're always a problem," Louise rebuked smoothly, "Dispense your hello to whichever poor fool that you've no doubt have certainly bed yesterday night. I'd prefer not to be bothered by a harlot like you so early in the morning."

"Worry not, Little Louise, your bark is quite cute; I'm sure you'll find a boy - maybe even a man - who you can one day say 'good morning' to in pleasure... in, say, ten years from now? Hmm~?"

"Rather it be a faithful and honorable man than those bunch of shameful cheating scum who would lay with you."

"Oh, how dreadful. My condolences to your man of dreams for he sleeps with a harpy."

"My, what hypocrisy is this that am I hearing from the would-be husband-stealer?"

Such rapier-sharp banter was the norm for these two girls.

Their hostility against each other reminded the Overlord of the verbal bouts that his wife Rose had with her younger sister Velvet - the words were not quite as harsh but the intensity and familiarity was all the same.

Normally Louise's and Kirche's tirade could continue on for a whole half-hour in a quick and brutally efficient manner with no clear ending in sight. But, this time, Kirche kept it short as she ignored the last retort and didn't bother to get the last word in.

The dark-skinned girl walked forward to the young Valliere's Familiar and her eyes beheld him in an inspecting light, "Hmm~" She hummed with a slightly tilted head, "We had performed the ritual rather late, so I wasn't able to get a good look... but I must admit, Louise," and then smiled, "you've summoned a rather impressive familiar." She added on as her eyes glanced downward to the armored-being's groin, "An impressively _big_ familiar~"

The strawberry blond had her mouth slightly agape, "You would...! With a half-breed?!"

The Germanian girl snorted, "I do not find myself attracted to anything that is merely male, Little Louise. I prefer men and," she licked her lips, "you're familiar is obviously quite the man."

Kirche was definitely not a succubus but for all intent and purposes she might as well have been one. The Overlord had little doubt that the girl would have fitted right in with those winged-temptresses, in fact they would probably welcomed her with open arms and straight into their bosoms.

Louise closed her mouth. She, for one, did not care for what the Germanian girl did with a human or otherwise in her free time. However, she would be damned if she let a Von Zerbst take something from her - especially if it was her familiar.

"Stay away from my familiar, Zerbst; that's the only warning I'm giving you," the young Valliere said with a mild frown.

Kirche cheekily grinned, "My, my, that was quite intimidating of you, but would you even be able to enforce that warning though... Zero?" She did not wait for a reply - which was only a clenched fist - and immediately called out the word for 'Flame' in Germanic, "Flayvme."

From out of her room slithered a dull-red tiger-sized salamander. It's reptilian eyes were of a sharp emerald green and its underbelly was of a soft pink color. The creature's scales were shaped like diamonds and the tip of its tail was on fire which blazed in a magnificent golden hue.

This Fire Salamander named Flayvme was summoned from Germania's Houlienfuer Drakenberg - or the Hellfire Dragon Mountains as it was more commonly known - a location that any fire-attribute mage would be more than honored to summon a familiar from. As it were, this particular species was known as the Hellfire Saladrake and was essentially the pinnacle for fire salamanders.

Louise eyed the four-legged beast with a hidden jealously; in terms of Familiar standing, a Hellfire Saladrake was obviously better than a half-giant.

"Toodles," Kirche said as she flicked her hair back, spun her on heel, and strutted away with her salamander following right behind.

Louise's entire body twitched with growing anger. However, she quickly kept a lid on it and calmed herself down. She sighed and mumbled to herself, "That girl always gets on my nerves..." She shook her head and then looked back to her own familiar, she really wished that she had summoned something more impressive, "Come on, let's... let's just go, Sieghart."

[...]

The Overlord silently followed behind his little master - her face was a mask of a prideful solitude that hid her insecurities.

Down the stairs they passed by several other students and their familiars, they did a quick visit to greet the dormkeeper - though a different one was at the desk this time as it was a female mage this morning, and then they exited the dorm and moved passed the fellow second-year students and familiars as they head straight to the gigantic Central Tower.

It was here that the Overlord spotted the beginnings of a split.

Students were directing their familiars to follows servants to the back of the Central Tower - apparently to the Austri Court. So it would seem the familiars dined away from their masters.

The Overlord had expected to walk elsewhere but received a different answer.

"Come along, Sieghart," Louise said with a turned head and then continued on her way to the Central Tower.

It was unknown to the demi-god but his little master had already asked for special permission several days ago to allow her future familiar into the dining hall with her. The reason for this was because Louise Francoise wanted to reassert her position as a mage amongst her peers, having a familiar would show that she was indeed a mage and not someone just playing pretend as one.

It was all very important to the young Valliere to reinforce her image of a Noble to those around her and to herself - especially to herself.

The dual-doors of some ancient wooden-make were both already outwardly wide open. Inside was another round lobby-floor, two guards stood on either side of the entrance, and to the left and right there were stairways that led upward. Further inside were another set of dual-doors that led to their destination.

"This is the Alviss Dining Hall; we gather here every morning, midday, and afternoon for breakfast, lunch, and dinner," Louise explained in a neutral voice, "Under normal circumstances a non-Noble like you would never be allowed to step inside its hall and eat. Be honored, Sieghart, that I have made a special exception for you."

'Honored' was the not the word the Overlord would use, as he preferred to eat away from children - or away from Minions at least, who were like slobbish children in their table manners; he didn't mind of much of be here though because he hadn't actually gotten the chance to see what the inside of the Central Tower was like yesterday night.

Before the Overlord walked through the second set of doors, he could already see a majority of the dining hall's inside.

The room was quite large - it would need to be to hold as many as four-hundred occupants at once with room to spare - and lavishly decorated.

There were three very long and thick wooden tables that ran parallel to the dining hall, each were capable of seating one-hundred people and were currently occupied by a different set of people. To the left there were younger-looking people in brown cloaks, in the middle were those in black cloaks, and to the right were slightly older-looking people in purple cloaks.

The tables were covered by a pristine white cloth and atop them were several candelabras and vases of flowers that separated a table into five segments. These items were furthered surrounded by an assortment of plates and bowls that contained a wide variety of extravagant and freshly cooked food - even now, there were servants running to and fro from the nearby kitchens to place more choices of food onto the table - but, unless these people ate like pigs, more than half of these dishes were quite likely to go unfinished and to waste.

Fifty highly quality wooden chairs with plush blue seats sat on both sides of a table. In front of each seat there was a small bowl, medium-sized plate, a white napkin, along with a silver spoon, folk, and knife - all neatly arranged.

The walls did not have torches nor did it have windows, instead the ceilings had several ornate-layered chandeliers to compensate for the general lighting. On the other hand, the walls were not bare, many paintings - ranging from Tristain's past rulers to eccentric work of arts - were hung on them.

Further into the room there were three opened doors - one to the left of the first-year table, another above the second-year table, and the last to the right of the third-year table. The sweet aroma of food drifted out and the sound of cooking could be heard from them; they clearly led to three large-sized kitchens.

Next to each of these kitchens were hollowed out areas in the wall to the left and right, inside them were dozens upon dozens of tiny statues of dwarf-like creatures doing silly poses and gestures - these statues depicted the Alviss, the namesake of the dining hall.

There was a bit more to the room, as the Overlord could see stairs - above the first-year and third-year tables - that led to an upper-level, however he obviously could not see it from his position despite how tall he was. Though, from the stronger magical signatures he could detect emanating from there, it was more than likely where the teachers dined at.

Louise, being a second-year, naturally went straight for the middle table and spoke as she walked, "There is an old saying: 'nobles achieve nobility through magic.' Do you understand, Sieghart? Magic is the source of nobility. That idea is the foundation from which we receive our education, hence the facilities we use must befit our status as Nobles." She stopped, turned around, and smirked lightly, "So, how is it, Sieghart? This dining hall must certainly be an impressive sight to you; I bet you've never seen anything like it before."

She was, once again, trying to impart to her familiar the knowledge of just how important and superior nobles were.

The Overlord, of course, was not verily impressed.

While he could not say that he had ever seen a breakfast as large as this gathering but, as the previous Ruler Of The Middle-Domains, he had attended some grand parties - held in either Heaven's Peak Castle or Castle Spree - by way of his wife's persuasion; the atmosphere in the Alviss Dining Hall and the past parties were more or less the same.

Though, the demi-god would admit the fact that they apparently ate as richly as this every morning, midday, and afternoon was a monumental extravagance of gluttony, and was semi-impressive in its own right.

How did they manage to even procure so much ingredients everyday? Especially the meat... did the animals here breed as fast did Mid-Domainian Sheeps did?

That said, the Overlord was more intrigued by his little master's previous words: 'nobles achieve nobility through magic.'

So this world - or at least the part where he was currently in - was a magicracy?

The Overlord hadn't dealt with much mages back in the Middle-Domains. Besides the Silent Order, some zombies, that asshole of an Evil Wizard, and the hexers who tried to curse him to death, mages were fairly reclusive and quite small in number. They often created cults or gathered in small numbers but generally weren't well involved in politics.

Here though, it seems that mages made up a decent portion of the population and were part of - if not entirely - its ruling body.

Aristocracy or Magicracy, it was just more of the same old - the strong ruled the weak - the only difference was that one of them ruled through use of magic rather than whatever else status.

The Overlord decided to play along with his little master - she thought that he was some kind of backwater barbarian and there was no need to correct that assumption. In response to the young Valliere's question, he simply nodded his head.

Louise's lip curled upwardly slightly; that was nice, her familiar was being grateful for being allowed here in. Without further words, she continued walking to the center of the table.

Once there, she pondered whether she should simply take a seat or have her familiar pull it out for her. She decided that, as a credit to her status as a rightful noble, she might as well show her fellow classmates that her familiar could obediently follow her orders.

"Sieghart," the pinkette called out, "Pull out my chair for me."

One would expect the Overlord to quirk a brow and refuse but this was actually something he knew how to do.

Rose had taught him the etiquettes of being a gentleman. There were many manners such as making sure that any bouquet of flowers given to his lady would be carefully hand-picked and packaged in an orderly fashion, preventing the fresh blood of his enemy from splattering over his lady's clean clothes, clearing out corpses in a systematic style, being able to carry his lady softly yet firmy in his arms while they escaped from a dungeon full of deadly monsters, and so on.

Yes, he knew quite a bit about gentlemanly etiquettes.

With a grace and fluidity that did not suit his stature or appearance, the Overlord pulled out Louise's chair for her. When she took her seat, he promptly tucked her back in.

As the young Valliere quietly sat in her seat, the conversation all around her drifted to her perked ears.

It was only a week into the new school year, thus the first-years did not have a clue about who she was; most of their gossip was wondering what family she came from and suggestions that her familiar was some sort of bodyguard. The third-years were not as curious as their juniors and merely talked about how the half-giant rumors were apparently confirmed true just now.

The second-years' response was quite different altogether.

"That Louise... who does she think she is? Bringing in that familiar of hers into the dining hall..." whispered a male student to one of his friends.

"My word," a female student frowned, "I won't be able to eat peacefully with a brute like that standing around."

"I think she's trying to show off her familiar to us," observed a random student.

"What for? She's still a zero!" another snickered.

They were completely full of complaints.

Louise kept calm and did not allow the words to affect her. She had endure a year of taunting already and as far as she was concerned she could endure another. Still, her hands clenched the hems of her skirt ever so slightly.

She tried to keep her mind off their words, "Siegeinherd," she abruptly called out with a turned head, "Half-Giants... what kind of meat do you prefer to eat?"

The Overlord wasn't a very picky eater and could stomach quite a variety of food - even poisonous ones - as his appetite was a remnant of the Gladiator's poor living back during the days he fought in that negligible coliseum.

But, having become a demi-god, he didn't need food anymore. He could easily sustain himself on mana, which this world had plenty of. On the other hand, just because he didn't need to eat, didn't mean he wouldn't - his taste buds were likely dull from years of disuse but he could still appreciate a well-cooked meal.

The Overlord shook his head; he would eat later. Besides he wasn't about to take off his helmet in front of just anybody.

"What? Why are you shaking your head?" Louise narrowed her eyes, her expression was quite close to being dejected.

But he did not respond any further. With a quick huff, Louise returned to waiting patiently and quietly at the table.

Servants ran in and out of the kitchen, students casually arrived and sat themselves down, several minutes passed by like this but soon silence filled the hall as the last maids and butlers scurried back into the kitchen or just outside of the room.

Slowly, someone from the upper-level came into view.

The man was quite old and had a grandfatherly appearance to him. Bushy eyebrows, combed-straight long hair, and a great big beard, his graying hair had a fierce quality to them like that of a wolf. The man wore a black robe that had several silver buckles on them, giving it a trench-coat like appearance. Though he looked fairly elderly with his eyes closed shut while holding a gnarled wooden staff in his hand, the man was anything but unfit. He stood tall and proud, a posture of confidence that one could have only attained through a life-time of experience.

This man was the undisputedly the strongest Halkeginian mage in the entire school.

With a simple tap of his staff and a quiet whisper the man commanded the very air within the room to carry his voice to every occupant.

"Good morning, my students," his aged voice was crystal clear to hear, "Let us give our thanks for this bountiful breakfast." He merely nodded his head and then walked away from sight.

The students did not need any further instructions.

They clasped their hands together, closed their eyes, and lowered their heads in prayer, "O Great Founder Brimir and our most Royal Crown, we thank you for this humble meal which you have graciously provided for us this morning... Blessed be the Magical Decree," the voices of the student's and teacher's rang out harmoniously and in chorus.

There was a brief moment of silence as the people unfurled their hands but soon the dining hall was abuzz with noise as the clamor of earnest dining began. They ate with a well-mannered dignity but at the same time their extravagance was quite noticeable - many dishes were left unfinished and even some were just completely untouched.

After forty-minutes of eating demurely, Louise softly dabbed her lips with a napkin.

The Overlord noted that Louise - unlike most of the other students - had a wider range of acceptance when it came to food and wasn't quite as picky. The palette that went onto her plate or bowl were of great variety and every meal within her reach was given a try, though she did avoid some of the more spicier dishes.

The young Valliere scooted out of seat and tried to speak with semi-authorative voice, "Are you not hungry, Sieghart?" To which her familiar simply nodded his head. But Louise wasn't completely convinced; he was a big creature and so naturally would need more to eat to function properly - she didn't want her familiar to keel over suddenly just because he didn't have food in his stomach._ 'I'll need to see to it that food is deliver to my room later.'_

Thinking about it, in slight retrospect, it was a good thing that her familiar did not eat breakfast today. She didn't want to know how messily a half-giant could eat - that would just absolutely embarrass her as a Valliere._ 'Yes... a big meal, at night, when no one will be watching him eat...'_

With that thought over, Louise left the dining hall. "Come, Sieghart." She had no classes to attend today - the day after the Springtime Familiar Summoning was free so that the second-year students could bond with their newly summoned partner. She didn't have any specific plans in mind but she was sure to think of something to pass the time with.

However, before she could leave the building, an irritating voice called out to her in the lobby.

"Oh, Louise~" Kirche purred, "Going somewhere, are we?"

The young Valliere stopped walking and responded back in her usual 'I know that you know that I hate you quite well yet I have to speak with you anyways' tone of voice, "Is there something you need from me, Zerbst?"

Kirche plainly ignored the hostile tone, "It's nothing much, really. I just wanted to introduce Tabby to your familiar."

Standing right next to Germanian girl was a very young looking girl who was even more petit than Louise.

The girl had short and soft light-blue hair which would blend right in with the vast clear sky and her eyes were of darker shade than her hair. She had red-rimmed glasses and wore the female uniform neatly along with her pristine white thigh-high stockings and brown loafers. Unlike most students who used a wand, this girl held a crooked wooden staff - that had blue fabric wrapped near the beginning of the crook - in her right hand.

This person was Tabitha de Loiret, a Gallian and a second-year student, who was otherwise known as the 'Disipolus Dei Hounlore' - Halkeginic for 'Student Of Honor' - making her the top student overall in the Tristain Academy Of Magic by virtue of her high scholarly and practical grade.

She was a quiet girl with a certain doll-like quality that always seemed to wear a neutral but dull and bored sort of expression on her face. She had a certain obvious fondness for books, or perhaps reading, as she always seemed to be carrying one on her - even now there was a book in her left hand.

It was an honest mystery to all how the reserved and somewhat reclusive Tabitha was apparently best friends with the passionate and outgoing sex-bomb that was Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt Zerbst.

Louise gave an acknowledging nod to her fellow classmate. Other than being a tad envious that the Gallian girl was an impressive mage by all accounts despite her childish stature that was similar to her own, the young Valliere held a fairly neutral but high opinion about Tabitha.

The Overlord's inspection however was in a different light.

Magic took many form and their were an uncountable number of ways to perform it. The two most basic styles were that one either controlled magic from within them or they controlled magic from outside of them.

Halkeginian Mages fell in the latter category; through the use of what they dubbed as 'Willpower' within them, they could control the mana in the world around them. Unlike Mid-Domainian Mages who could learn magic for so long as they strived to do so, in Halkeginia it seemed that the disposition was biological in nature - one was either born with it or not.

But, even if the Overlord were to dissect a Halkeginian Mage, he wouldn't know what to look for though; he was not a physician.

He had an interest in magic but not in terms of scholarly pursuit in as so much for arming himself with knowledge. Since he did not understand how their magecraft worked, his ability to sense a person's magical strength only gave him a basic and general impression of just how strongly a mage could cast magic - the ability did not account for skills or other variables.

What the Overlord sensed from this girl called Tabitha was an association with the elements of Wind, Ice, and some Water, meanwhile her magical strength and capacity was also higher than even most of the teachers as well - she was almost in an entirely different league from her peers but not quite there yet.

On that note, the demi-god would rank the old man from before as the strongest, followed far behind by that Professor Colbert, next would be this girl Tabitha, then Kirche not too far behind, and finally Louise.

While his little master had little reserves to cast spells often, the Overlord whole-heartedly believed that she could become even more powerful than that old man. She had a unique potential; her element was quite different from everybody else's and she had managed summoned him after all - Louise would no doubt become the strongest mage here, if he would say so himself.

Anyways, there was something a tad familiar about this blue-haired girl but the Overlord couldn't quite put his finger on it.

There was silence as Tabitha examined the young Valliere's familiar with her eyes - there was certain focused glint to them, though it was pretty much impossible to tell apart from her typical bored look.

It was rare to see the girl interested in anything beside the books that she read all the time. Thus, feeling a bit prideful and confident of the positive attention her knight was getting, Louise tried to start a conversation, "If I may ask, what is it about my familiar that you're interested in, Tabitha?"

The Gallian paused briefly to answer quietly, "...Interesting," was all she said. With a small polite nod she excused herself and flipped open her book - Tower Mythos: Crimson King Sauthoth, Volume 6, it read on the cover.

"Well then, later, Louise~" Kirche waved a flirting goodbye to her rival, and especially to the Overlord, as she went to catch up with her surprisingly fleet of foot friend.

The pinkette let out a small sigh. She was somewhat disappointed that Tabitha only had a passing interest in her familiar. But, with nothing left to interrupt her, Louise straightened herself out and continued walking.

[...]

Now that it was morning Louise had time to give a quick tour around the school campus.

The five massive buildings that connected the outer-walls in the shape of pentagon were known as the Class Towers and each had a differently colored roof to represent an element. Starting from the one at the very back and going clockwise, it went: purple-roof Void, red-roof Fire, brown-roof Earth, green-roof Wind, and blue-roof Water.

Meanwhile, the inner grassy grounds of the academy was primarily separated into five areas.

There was the Austri Court in between the Void and Fire Class Towers; the court was reserved primarily as the familiars' dining-field and also as the sleeping domain of the more larger beasts. There was the Suori Court in between the Fire and Earth Class Towers; the court was were the students seemed to lounge around in their free-time. There was the Vestri Court in between the Wind and Water Class Towers; at this court there were many circular stone stages that surrounded a much larger platform. There was the Norori Court in between the Water and Void Class Towers; this court did not serve any particular or apparent function though. Lastly, the area between the Earth and Wind Class Towers was simply the entrance-way into the school along with the paved stone road that led straight to the Central Tower.

Louise and the Overlord were currently at the Austri Court, along with the other dozens upon dozens of students who were bonding with their familiars either here or at the Suori Court - notably, a few other students were pitting their familiars against each other at the Vestri Court.

Unbeknownst to them Tabitha was keeping a watchful eye from atop the Third-Year Dorm. She had a gut feeling that something interesting was about to happen...

Louise took a look at left, then to her right, and back to her left again. _'Good, Zerbst isn't around to bother me.'_

The young Valliere cleared her throat as she adopted a lecturing pose with her wand out, "Now then, Siegeinherd, I shall explain to you what it means to be a familiar of a Noble."

She flicked her wand, "First: a Master can see and hear through the eyes and eyes of their Familiar through a spell called 'Servant View.' So hold yourself still." She hummed to herself gently while mentally preparing the spell, she then opened her mouth and chanted, "For our fate is intertwined and our balance is blessed, through eyes and ears let there be a union of sight and sound!"

As the final words left her lips, the runes on the Overlord's hand suddenly flared up and momentarily caught him off guard. He clenched his left hand tightly in response and quickly suppressed the runes once more.

After several moments, his little master furrowed her brows and frowned, "This is odd... its seems that I can't see or hear what you're experiencing..." She gazed upward to him, "Sieghart, do you feel different? Anything at all?"

The Overlord shook his head and lied. The demi-god enjoyed his privacy, even if that spell hadn't cause the runes to act up he would have resisted the magic anyways. He hoped that she wouldn't try again though; her attempt had apparently restored some of the rune's defenses and that was a tad troubling to him.

This time Louise nodded dejectedly, "Oh, I see..." She instantly assumed - despite the lack of an explosion - that her magic had failed. But she swiftly wiped off her downed expression and resumed with her usual Valliere calmness. "Well, it doesn't matter; it's the least important thing about having a familiar anyways," she logically reasoned to herself.

As far as she knew, it was a spell with little use amongst mages, since experiencing the world through the senses of a beast could be rather nauseating.

For example the Bugbear - a giant floating eyeball that was a distant relative to the Beholder - was summoned every so often by Earth Mages as familiars and these creatures viewed the world in ways that human minds were not meant to comprehend.

"Well, moving on... secondly: a Familiar must be able to collect wild reagents or retrieve items for their Master." Louise quirked a brow at her familiar. "You don't look like you would have any trouble retrieving anything I would ask of you... but would you even be able to find any reagents on your own?"

The Overlord shook his head. Not unless he would be given free reigns to explore the whole land for about a full month, until then he currently had no clue about this world's geography and therefore wouldn't be able to find anything without explicit directions.

His little master frowned again. She had expected as much, she knew of the Half-Giants to be more of meat-hunters than anything else.

"Well, that's not a problem either," she mostly told to herself, "Selling some reagents would have been nice but I have no real need for them either." She quickly brushed the issue aside with a passive look and moved on, "Thus, thirdly and lastly, but most importantly of all: a Familiar must protect their master at all times!" She paused in inspection, "I suppose you're good enough for that at least."

Half-Giants weren't quite as prestigious as, say, a Hellfire Saladrake but this humanoid species were known to be aggressive fighters and could hold their own against a majority of wild beasts and monsters.

"That's only if I'm in any danger whatsoever, anyways," the young Valliere snarked. She could hardly imagine needing a bodyguard, of any sort, as she couldn't see herself spelunking out in the wilderness any time soon. She pretty much thought of herself safe at school and at home.

What were the chances that something murderously dangerous would crop up in her life?

In this day and age, Tristain and the rest of the Halkeginian countries were mostly at a time of peace. There were a few skirmishes here and there but those could have hardly been called 'wars.'

Louise wanted to throw up her hands in frustration. She couldn't cast Servant View, her familiar couldn't find reagents on his own, and he couldn't protect her if there was nothing to protect her from. As it stood, Siegeinherd was just a trophy - and not a very gloat-worthy one either - that stood as a very small testament to the fact that she was in fact a mage.

The girl took in a deep breath,_ 'Calm down, Louise Francoise, calm down... Just as always, you must work with what you have; you need to make do with what life has given you... Oh who am I kidding? I hate my life!'_ In a fit of anger, she threw up arms and growled - life was just not fair to her. _'Such misfortune! Is the whole world out to get me?!'_

It would take several minutes for her to settle down.

She gave one last huff before she straightened herself up, _'I'm glad mother wasn't around to see this,'_ and then shivered in horror. She didn't even want to think about what sort of punishment her mother would have given if that woman had seen her throw this fit just now.

Louise had done physically little today but she still felt mentally defeated and also somewhat sluggish now. She wanted to lay down on a nice deck-chair, shaded under a large umbrella, and perhaps drink a fine fragrant tea of some classy Romalian-brand as the cool gentle breeze brushed by... _'Yes, that sounds nice right about now.'_

The young Valliere quickly spun on her heel, "Come, Sieghart, we're changing locations."

The Overlord followed silently behind her. But he did wonder: was it normal for a teenage girl to go through so much different emotions in the span of ten minutes? Or was his little master just this uniquely unstable?

[...]

As the strawberry and knight pair made their way to the Suori Court, they were greeted with a large gathering of students circling around something.

Louise could see that the crowd was made up mostly of second-years. The first-years stayed back as they didn't wish to push against their seniors, while the few third-years were completely fine with watching from afar and laughing amongst themselves. There were also quite a few servants here that were clearly in a panic.

From the ongoing chatter, she could make out a few words such as: Guiche, Two-timing, and Montmorency.

Because of her height, Louise couldn't see what was happening. She briefly considered sitting on her Familiar's shoulder but that would make her look far too childish - no way, she wasn't going to humiliate herself like that.

It was, of course, at this opportune moment when a certain Germanian girl had conveniently spotted the young Valliere - no doubt the pinkette's tall familiar stood out - and walked over with her own familiar in tow.

"Hello there, Louise, here to enjoy the show too?" The amused smirk on Kirche's face was plainly because she knew what was going on.

"And what show would that be?" Louise inquired.

Kirche suppressed a giggle, "Oh, it's just Guiche being Guiche."

[...]

Guiche de Gramont was in a rather tight situation right now.

He was a well-known second-year student for his personal motto that 'A beautiful rose blooms for the pleasure of all;' him being the rose, of course. The boy was often considered to be a softer version of the very sexual Kirche - he flirted with nearly every female in sight but never went around to seduce any of them - and had a reputation that was fairly positive and more approving.

Girls liked him and boys wanted to be like him.

Unfortunately though, that popularity of his went straight to his head.

During the break before the new school year, Guiche had cockily begun to date two girls.

There was the first-year Katherine de Stanhope, who had long straight brown hair with light violet eyes. She was a pleasant girl who enjoyed baking sweets and became fairly attached to him when he had accompanied her on a night-time stroll around the Ragdorian Lake.

Guiche wasn't all too sure why he had chosen her in the first place - perhaps it was that meekness of her that endeared him or maybe it was because she resembled his loving mother just a bit?

The other girl was the second-year Montmorency Margarita la Fere de Montmorency, who had her golden-blond hair styled into many ringlet curls. She was a childhood friend of sorts that he saw every so often at social gatherings.

As the boy recalled, his family was quite prolific in Tristain with a strong history for producing excellent soldiers and bodyguards. The Gramont Family had many important clients, one such being the Montmorency Family who had the divine blessings of the Ragdorian Lake's Water Spirit, and kept close contact and favors with those many clients. Thus, the small group he typically associated with were those he had met when he was younger.

As it were, Guiche wasn't actually dating Montmorency just because she was from a client family - it wasn't quite that political. When they both had become first-years at the academy, the boy had noticed that the golden-blond haired girl had an actual interest in him - though she typically feigned disinterest in the face of others.

It had taken awhile but he had eventually been able to get Montmorency to date him - albeit in secret.

Thus began Guiche's descent. After semi-thawing the cold Montmorency into accepting him, he thought he could woo any girl and soon came to meet Katherine during the break.

He was utterly regretting that decision right now.

"Guiche, would you care to explain to me just what exactly is going on here?" Montmorency asked of him with a neutral face that hid her immense displeasure and absolute anger.

Meanwhile, Katherine did not say a word but she was clearly glaring at him with wet upset eyes.

Being caught in between two angry women, that was simply a situation Guiche had never been through before. Sure, there were the occasional bouts where some girls would fight each other for him but this was the first time he had two girls being _directly_ angry at him.

He tried to keep his cool as he spoke, "Now, please wait just a moment, for the sake of our reputation, allow me to clear up this misunderstanding an-"

"What is there to misunderstand?!" Katherine interrupted. She said no more as she suddenly and abruptly broke down into tears.

Guiche cringed, seeing the the girl who resembled his mother cry simply broke his heart. He moved closer to try and placate her, "K-Katie, please calm down and-" but she simply slapped his hand away.

With no more words, Katherine de Stanhope quickly ran away, her sobs left lingering in the air.

"'Katie,' huh?" Montmorency's voice immediately reminded the boy that his ordeal had yet to be over, "Just as I thought, you've been making moves on that first-year... Well, do you have anything to say for yourself, Guiche de Gramont?"

"My dear, Montmorency The Fragrance," He turned around but couldn't complete his sentence as his left cheek was promptly slapped in an audible smack.

Montmorency's face was distorted in anger, "Don't you dare and try to flatter me, you damn lying cheat!" and then slapped him again on the other cheek before stomping away.

The court was silent for a few moments.

But then Guiche's friend burst out in laughter.

"Serves you right!" one of them pointed.

"'A beautiful rose blooms for the pleasure of all,' was it?" another snickered with an arm slung over Guiche's shoulders.

Guiche moved away his too-close friend and rubbed his sore cheeks. He kept a calm face as he spoke with his usual flair, "Those two simply don't appreciate the existence of a rose, is all."

Someone from the crowd - a girl - quipped back without showing herself, "A lady has no admiration for a conceited rose." The surrounding group of students cheered in approval, yet Guiche still kept outwardly calm.

The young Gramont knew that he deserved all of the insults directed at him. But he was so extremely flustered that his thoughts became erratic because of that.

He had plans - plans that seemed perfect when he had conceived them - and now they were absolutely ruined! "You there, Maid," he addressed a certain servant who was holding onto a perfume bottle, "Do you know what you have done here?" He couldn't honestly believed that all the fault laid out with him; if his plan had come to fruition then nobody would have been any wiser of his activities and thus nobody would have been harmed.

Guiche wanted to salvage his social standing amongst his peers. Or at least what remained of it anyways, as sad as his attempts might come off as.

That maid with short black-hair was the source of his troubles, if she just had a little more tact than he wouldn't have gone through this situation in the first place.

The purple perfume in the servant's hand belonged to Montmorency - a special item that belonged only to her; making it very obvious that if the perfume was in the hands of another then they either stole it or was given it as a gift. Being her boyfriend, Guiche was of course given a bottle as a gift but never wore it himself due to their secret relationship.

However, if anyone saw that perfume in his possession that they would instantly know that he was dating Montmorency; he didn't need that possibility of incriminating evidence when he was going to charm a few more other girls. Luckily, because of their not-so-open status, Guiche would have been able to get rid of it without Montmorency ever being aware of the deed.

But because of the Springtime Familiar Summoning, he had been too busy to dispose of the perfume; today was suppose to be the day that he would get around to doing so.

Unfortunately, he had the perfume hidden in his sleeves and due to his usual dramatics - which involved waving his arms in exaggerated motions - it unceremoniously fell out onto the ground. Seeing as nobody around him had noticed it, Guiche had then smoothly tried to ignored it. It turned out though that the maid, who was serving his group tea and sweets, had indeed seen it dropped and tried to helpfully return it.

The rest of what happened was, well, history.

"I hope you're aware that there is a severe punishment for tarnishing a Noble's reputation," Guiched stated as he pulled out his wand.

[...]

Kirche let loose a laugh when Guiche was slapped on the face by Montmorency.

The Germanian girl believed herself a passionate follower of love - the boys she bed would never dare to blame her because she laid every to bare, quite literally, and getting involved with her meant knowing and understanding that she saved herself for no one man. Even though people often compared Guiche to her, she had never once considered him to even be remotely near her level of passion.

"Well, perhaps, he's learned his lesson now?" Kirche giggled in a sultry tone, "Relationships aren't something that should be handle at a distance but rather up close and personal~"

Louise refrained from commenting outwardly. _'If a single mistake was all it took to change a man then everybody would think twice about sleeping with you.'_

At that moment another loud slapped could be heard.

Kirche placed a hand beneath her chin and withheld a giggle, "My, that Montmorency certainly has a hand on her; Guiche's cheeks are just positively red!"

"You seem awfully delighted at seeing Guiche get punished."

The Zerbst shrugged nonchalantly, "Well, wouldn't you agree that seeing a flirt like Guiche getting his just reward to be very entertaining?"

Louise did not answer verbally. _'Maybe if I could see over the crowd then I might agree with you...'_ She was somewhat disappointed that she didn't get to see the moment that Guiche was slapped. The girl had a dislike for the young Gramont since he seemed nice to everybody, well everybody except her apparently...

The audience quickly opened up as a very obviously angry Montmorency stomped back to the Second-Year Dorm. Neither girls bothered to call out to her since they weren't good friends, just classmates - despite almost always arguing with Kirche like a newly-wed couple, Louise would never say in public that the Germanian girl was her friend though.

As the two students conversed, the Overlord was instead still watching the scene before him - his towering height giving him a near clear view of the ongoing event.

He could see that the female maid from yesterday night - Siesta, he recalled - was the center of attention. Fear was etched onto her face as she clumsily fiddled with a perfume bottle that she held close to her chest and the primary source of her worries was because of a overly dramatic second-year student.

The boy was a blondie with short hair that was naturally curly, his eyes were a blue sort of color, and look-wise he was actually fairly dashing - he was likely to grow to appear quite handsome in the future. He was dressed flamboyantly as his uniform was quite different from the other male students'; his collar was flared out, there was a good amount of frills that decorated his long sleeves and shirt, the top few buttons were left unfinished to display his chest - the boy at least had some muscle to display, his pants were not the typical black but a light violet shade instead, his shoes were a squeaky clean white, and his black cloak was not buckled by a golden pendant - the pendant was instead clipped onto the left side of his pants.

The Overlord really hated this boy already.

This Guiche child looked like a much younger version of William, though he acted more like the man's older-self.

When the boy pulled out his wand which looked like a rose, the demi-god narrowed his eyes, the image of the Lustful Paladin Hero briefly overlapped with the boy's. The Overlord wasn't about to allow Siesta be unfairly punished by this pathetic boy who was trying to cover up his mistakes.

The Overlord strode forward and pushed aside anybody in his way.

Louise took notice at that moment, "Sieghart, where are you going?" but received no answer, not even a pause from her familiar. Her displeasure showed on her face, "Don't you ignore me, Familiar!" and she chased after him, "Get back here! I command you to stop!"

An amused smirk appeared on Kirche's face, "Well, I wonder what's going on now~?" She flicked back her hair and walked through the passage that was recently carved opened - Flayvme followed right behind. The reptilian beast gave a gurgle when he spotted a familiar person in the crowd. "Oh, Tabby, you're here too?" She asked as she moved towards her best friend.

The blue haired girl simply nodded her head. It seemed that her intuition was correct; something interesting was about to happen and she was going to get a front-row seat to it.

[...]

The Overlord simply stepped into the scene, his usually silent steps now made a heavy noise to declare his entrance. He immediately moved forward and stood in between Guiche and Siesta, he folded his arms across his chest as he stared down at the boy.

The Gramont gulped and frowned but still kept his cool, he would not cow before a mere familiar, "...You are the half-giant summoned by Louise yesterday... What do you want? Are you planning to interfere?" His eyes scanned the crowd until he spotted the approaching pinkette who was looking somewhat miffed, "Louise, call off your familiar."

The young Valliere gave him a brief look as she answered indignantly, "I don't need you to tell me what to do with my familiar, Guiche." She quickly went back to attending to her disobedient knight, "Siegeinhe-" only to have him grab her by her cloak and collar and lifted up into the air like a child. "Wha?! L-Let me down right now! Siegeinherd! Stop! I order you to let me down!"

The blondie shook his head, "As expected of the Zero, it seems you can't even control your own familiar."

Louise let loose a shout, she was obviously not in the best of moods, "You two-timing playboy! Take that back! Take that back, right now! Or so The Founder help me, I'll...!"

The boy simply dismissed the hanging Valliere and went back to addressing the armored-entity before him.

He stuck his wand outwardly, "I will give you one chance, Familiar; move or I shall force you to."

The Overlord could almost laugh; tougher things have tried and those tougher things were also long dead because of it. In response, he unfolded one arm, reached out to offending wand, and crushed it with little effort.

There was complete silence before a loud and infectious gasp erupted from the audience.

"Did that half-giant just...?"

"Yes, it did..."

"That's the problem with these half-breeds, they just don't know their place!"

For a Noble, a wand was a symbol of their authority and power. To have one destroyed like it was a mere twig, by a dirty half-breed no less, was just an utter insult to them.

Guiche's face turned flush as he narrowed his brows. The day had gone from bad to worst; first the Maid, then Montmorency and Katherine, and now this Half-Giant had crumpled up his wand? Unreasonable! It was just all too much for him to bear.

"You mock-blood of a barbarian! Such disrespect!" He growled in exasperation. He almost threw a tantrum but quickly bottled in his outburst. The boy turned around as he dramatically flicked his cape, "I challenge you to a duel: twenty minutes from now, meet me at the Vestri Court. There I shall teach you your proper place, barbarian!"

"H-Hey, wait a moment, Guiche!" Louise cried out. The Master was responsible for the Familiar and she wasn't going to allow hers to be beaten up by Guiche. "Have you forgotten? Duels are forbidden!"

The boy paused and looked back, "Only amongst nobles," he answered, "Last I recalled, your familiar isn't a noble," he sneered, "And you yourself are not much of a noble either, Louise The Zero."

With those words he departed back to his room to grab a spare wand.

Louise gaped with her mouth open, she didn't even notice when the demi-god had put her back down. She was in shock; that insult had come out of nowhere. Guiche just openly discredited her nobility.

The young Valliere's entire body turned a hot red.

She snapped.

"GUUIIICCCCHHHHHEEEEEE DDEEE GGGRRRRAAAAAMMMMMMOOOOOOONNNNNNNNTTTTTTTTT!"

For almost ten minutes straight she purely called him many hateful names; her voice could be heard all around even from the guards patrolling outside the academy.

It seemed that these two children were becoming too riled up for their own good.

Kirche examined her fingernails as she waited for her rival to calm down. When the shouting died down, she blew on them nonchalantly, "Well, Louise, that was quite the outburst. Not even I have been able to get that kind of reaction from you - and I'm suppose to be your rival!"

"Shut. Up. Zerbst." Louise intoned with a no-nonsense voice as her seething dropped. "And you...!" she hissed to the Overlord, "You... Stupid! Disobedient! Mute! Mock-blood! Of a familiar! What in the Name Of The Founder do you think you're doing?!" She jabbed her wand at him with criticism, "I ordered you to stop and you didn't! I ordered you to put me down and you didn't! Now look what you've done; you've gotten yourself into a duel with Guiche! He may only be a Dot-Class Mage but he's still a Noble!"

The Overlord's little master was going absolutely ballistic at him. And, frankly, it was getting somewhat tiring - the only reason he hadn't left yet was because he knew that she would nag at him even more if he did; it reminded him terribly of Rose and her usual but long-winded tirades.

Well, he was apparently an ageless demi-god now, so he had all the time in the world to spare. He could wait.

[...]

The Overlord was a little peeved.

He was late for the duel because of Louise's incessant whining for another ten minute. He was lucky that the duel wasn't called off - Kirche, with some nudging from Tabitha, had convinced Guiche and the crowd to wait for them - and that his little master had dropped the subject as she was apparently still far too mad at Guiche to apologize or cancel the duel now.

It was a shame that he was late, and not even fashionably so, as being the overlord meant that he held himself to higher standards.

Just like his sword, he preferred to do things sharply and to the point.

As the demi-god arrived at the Vestri Court, he could already see the crowd gathered around the largest arena that the court had to offer.

The audience was made up entirely of students and familiars; common guards and servants did not dare mingle with the nobles more than they have to, and the teachers or magic-guards were nowhere to be found.

He could see that Kirche had a front-row seat as she laid seductively on her reptilian familiar, breasts spilling forth, like a huntress on the prowl. Tabitha stood besides her, eyes locked onto him and attentive, the Gallian girl's dragon provided the two of them with a wide space as its wings intentionally kept other people away.

Montmorency was also there in a different section of the crowd, she stood alone with her arms folded and a stern expression on her face. Apparently the girl known as Katherine was also here, though she wasn't paying much attention to the duel as she was being cooed and cuddled by her friends.

Meanwhile Guiche was already waiting in the arena, poised and elegant.

Without further ado, the Overlord stepped onto the stage.

"Hmph," Guiche huffed out in response, "My word, you certainly took your time to get here, mongrel. Well, whatever," he brought his rose-wand up to his nose and sniffed it, "I believe its time for me to deliver you your due punishment." He smirked, "Now let me teach you, barbarian, that against a mage - a noble - such as I, even that oversized sword is nothing more than a pointy stick!"

The crowd of students cheered as they lapped up Guiche's performance.

The Overlord merely cracked his neck in response; it was time for him to get this duel over with and teach this kid a lesson in manners. He doubted that he would need to use his sword for this - he wasn't trying to kill the boy, after all his little master's exact words were: _"I want that accursed skirt-chaser to be down on his knees, crying and begging for his life_!_"_.

A boy, one of Guiche's friends, stepped up from the audience and approached the center of the arena. He took out a wand and raised it up to the sky, "Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a duel!" he quickly announced, "The Bronze versus the Mock-Blood!"

The students roared with excitement.

Louise silently seethed. Damn that referee; he just insulted her familiar! _'That Guiche, he planned this!'_ Even amongst the nobles, the young Gramont was rather theatrical - he was selling this fight as a simple show. In fact, she could already see a small betting corner being set up by the boy's other friends.

"I am the third son of the Gramont Family, Guiche de Gramont!" the boy declared as he raised his rose-wand, "And my Runic Name is The Bronze!"

The Overlord said nothing in return.

Thus it was up to Louise to do the introduction. However, she did not want to simply give out a name, she wanted to declare a title - something that would counter the previous insult and make her familiar all that more impressive. If that sod Guiche was going to ham up this duel then she would do it too.

Louise stepped up confidently into the center of the arena, "This is my familiar: Siegeinherd... The Dragonarok Knightmare!"

The demi-god almost quirked a brow at that; his title was a portmanteau of the words for Dragon, Ragnarok, Knight, and Nightmare. But then the title made some sense when he remembered that his new name 'Siegeinherd' was also based off of a dragon-slayer and the warriors of the apocalypse. Dragonarok Knightmare... The Knight Of Nights That Heralds The Demise Of Dragons. The Overlord mentally chuckled. Now that was an impressive title, more so than his older ones - he wondered just how many more would he gain for himself in this world?

Meanwhile Kirche licked her lips in delight, _'Oh, so his name is Siegeinherd, is it? Mmmhh~ That's certainly quite manly. Now, if only I had a face to that name~'_

The crowd of students practically laughed their jaws off with guts spilling out. Dragonarok Knightmare? It was a such a childish sounding title, it sounded like it came from some low-grade fairy-tale or novel. But, more importantly, they believed it simply sounded far too good of a title for a half-giant that was merely the familiar of Louise The Zero.

"Dragonarok Knightmare, she says?!" a boy pointed and laughed.

"O-oh my, I-I don't thiiinnk I can st-stop mmyselfff-ff," a girl stuttered as she tried to rein in her fit of giggles.

Louise left the stage only slightly upset; she had expected this sort of reaction._ 'It'll change soon enough._' While she didn't know how strong a half-giant usually was, she at least knew that Guiche's favorite spell was Valkyrie Golem and he had a tendency to underestimate others.

She may have been glorifying her familiar a bit too much but she assumed that any decent half-giant should be able to take on a minimal of six of those all at once. So Siegeinherd at least had a - unlikely as she thought it was - chance to beat down Guiche before he could cast any more dangerous spells.

The announcer-boy shouted as he swung his wand down, "Let the duel begin!" and immediately moved away from the combat arena.

The Overlord stood still, he was going to let the boy make the first move.

The blondie silently flicked his rose-wand which caused a single red petal to detach and sway gently in the breeze. Without warning, the petal promptly exploded in a flash of light. Where the petal once was, now stood a tall woman with a longsword and armor that had wing-decals.

This newcomer was entirely made of bronze from the inside out.

"This is my Bronze Valkyrie!" Guiche proudly voiced. Beautifully sculpted with delicate curves, the image of the valkyrie was both alluring and softly feminine but also sturdy and warrior-like. The young Gramont fancied himself somewhat of an artist - who crafted solely out of bronze - and the Bronze Valkyrie was his best work yet. He waved his wand once more and seven petals flew away, in turn seven more valkyrie-golems came into existence with each wielding a different weapon. "And they shall be your opponent, Barbarian!"

The Overlord was pleasantly surprised. He hadn't expected much out of the narcissistic boy but the youth possessed a nice sense of aesthetics since those valkyries were quite easy on the eyes. It was a shame though that the child was still of no challenge - while the Overlord was not a battle-freak, he did always enjoy a good fight.

The demi-god did not even bother to draw his sword as he walked towards the nearest golem.

In response, the squad of valkyries mobilized swiftly in unison. Despite being statues made from durable bronze, they moved fluidly enough that they seemed human. They quickly surrounded their lone opponent - it was a basic but also sound strategy against a tougher enemy.

Unfortunately for them, the Overlord was more than just a mere tougher enemy, he was already beyond their league.

The valkyries formed a circle and lined up their weapons. Guiche wasn't going to end this duel so soon, it was in his nature to toy around; he planned to have each golem attack in quick succession, one after another, as a way of harassment.

The first golem struck out with the force of nearly two grown men, however, such strength was beneath the notice of the Overlord. He continued unimpeded as the spear cracked and broke against his armor. He reached out with his large hand and grasped the helmed-head of the valkyrie before him, with a simple clench of his fist he crushed it into dust.

The remaining seven golems attacked in quick succession but provided no more than a pin-prick sensation against the armor of their larger opponent. Before young Gramont could register the lost of his valkyrie and readjust his plan, the Overlord swung his now clenched first and caved in the chest of the next closest bronze construct.

In less than five seconds, the Overlord destroyed two bronze valkyries, thus only six of them still remained.

Guiche's gut instinct told him that something was wrong but he didn't listen to it. He felt somewhat queasy as he scattered his bronze valkyries from their formation and had them aim for the joints of the familiar's armor - there had to be chinks somewhere that he could take advantage of - but he didn't think that he was losing, just that the duel wasn't as one-sided as he had originally expected it to be.

The valkyries were fleet of foot and quite graceful in their movement but they were not moving or attacking fast enough that the Overlord could not defend himself against them. One did not survive gladiator-hood if they were not own strength to kill, speed to retaliate, and skill to fight multiple opponents at once.

Despite his size, the Overlord was not slow.

A golem thrusted out its spear aimed at the slits of his helmet that allowed for sight. The aged-warrior simply caught the weapon and pulled. The construct suddenly found itself off of its feet, then its face came into contact with the Overlord's fist and the head was completely shattered.

Another golem tried to attack from behind but the demi-god turned around swiftly before it could get an attack in. With a shove of his arm, the back-end of the spear hit the valkyrie's chest with such force that it practically exploded, which absolutely destroyed both the construct and the weapon.

The Overlord was surprised but also annoyed at his quick reaction.

The moment he had grasped the spear, the runes tried to forcibly activate once more. Knowledge seeped into his mind and body like a phantom, providing information and even the skills on how to best use the bronze spear. It also gave him an incredible boost to his strength, speed, and stamina, but with it came the same sensation of hundreds of tendrils creeping into places they shouldn't be. He supressed it immediately but his body had reacted faster and ended up destroying the previous golem.

It would seem that he would need to deal with these runes after this duel. Their constant restoration was becoming a nuisance.

For now, he had a fight to finish; four golems remained.

Guiche grimaced at the quick destruction of half of his fighting force. At this rate it was pretty clear that he would lose the duel if he just left things as they were. It was a shame that he had no more rose-wands on his person so that he could immediately summon up some more bronze valkyries for a small expense but on the other hand he was still fresh and had willpower to spend.

He needed to take this duel more seriously. Leaving his golems with a new directive to keep their distance from the Zero's Familiar and therefore bide time, the young Gramont waved his wand as he began chanting.

"Heed my call, the glorious maidens of war, and take form from the earth! Grant me victory: Bronze Valkyries!"

The ground beneath the Overlord stirred as two pairs of arms burst from the floor and grabbed his legs. Further around him, six more golems rose up from the earth. The quality of their forms were slightly degraded but it seemed that in exchange for that they now had the strength of around four adult men - or at least the two trying to hold down his legs did, though these two were also only half-formed with their upper-body.

The Overlord clasped his hands together and swung them down like a mighty hammer, twice. Both of the valkyries that held his legs down were flattened back into the ground. The remnants of their arms still hung attached onto him and a quick brush of his arm soon got rid of those as well.

In that time, Guiche had already completed his next spell.

"Pillars of the earth, erupt and bare your mighty fangs! Ground Pound!"

The ground around the Overlord rumbled as thick pillars of earth randomly erupted from the floor and pounded him from all sides.

If he was any less tough than the spell would have surely locked him into place.

The Overlord crossed his arms as he charged out from the center of the attack. He bulldozed through two unfortunate golems who happened to be his way. Meanwhile a third was destroyed when he backhanded it for being close to his stopping point.

Seven bronze valkyries remained.

Guiche frantically panicked at the sight of the unscathed knight. _'Why isn't that damn mock-blood going down?!'_ He had not honestly expected the familiar to get out of that spell since Ground Pound could turn a regular human into broken up pieces of mush.

He seethed inwardly, fighting the Zero's Familiar was suppose to have been an outlet for his stress but instead it was building up even more stress for him!

"Very well then...!" Guiche grumbled to himself. He flicked his wand and chanted quickly, "Oh, earth below the skies, rise upward and pierce the land of the heavens above! Earth Tower!"

A single and large segment of the arena floor streamed outward at an angle. The Overlord felt the initial impact when it hit his chest and took a step backward, but soon the continuous growing stream of earth simply splashed harmlessly against his armor as he stood rooted in place and blocked the water-like stream of earth with his forearms.

_'Got you,'_ the young Gramont smirked. Four of his bronze valkyries immediately pounced onto the Zero's Familiar and clung onto him like hungry leeches. "Of the earth's trapping, my enemy shall be buried under the land! Shattered Earth!"

For a brief moment the golems' hummed as their magical core suddenly oversurged with power. With a flash the four bronze valkyries exploded in a furious roar - choking the air with clouds of dust and deafening sound like that of a parade of firecrackers.

Guiche lowered his guard as he gave his wand another dramatic swish. "Well, with this, I believe, my victory is secure now." Even a noble with enchanted protection - such as the uniforms of this academy - or a dragon would be hard-pressed to survive completely uninjured from this type of indiscriminate shrapnel attack.

Unfortunately for him, he was proven wrong when the connections with his remaining three golems suddenly went dark - now zero of them remained active. The boy flinched and yelped when the broken and battered body of one of his bronze valkyrie was thrown at the base of his person. "I-It can't be...!" dread filled his voice.

Slow but steady footsteps clearly resounded from the cloud of dusts. Soon, the Overlord strode confidently out from the brown smoky veil and into the sunlight. His black armor was no more battered than the day he was summoned and their dark tint gleamed menacingly under the light.

The crowd was in silent disbelief at his survival.

The demi-god had to admit, he didn't give the boy much credit, he was almost certain that the Gramont kid did not have any combat skills at all. He had expected to finish this duel within ten seconds after the first free hit, but instead the fight had gone on for much longer than he had anticipated.

In a mocking display of acknowledgement, the Overlord slowly clapped his gauntlet hands three times. This Guiche de Gramont had surpassed his previous expectations, but that still wasn't enough to win this duel, and his gesture now marked the end of this fight. The boy knew this too; Guiche gulped and sweated as he stared into the demi-god's glowing eyes - it was only now that he noticed just how intimidating those eyes were.

It was time to enact out his little master's wish.

The Overlord pulled out his sword and momentarily allowed it to boost his power. In a blur he stabbed his sword into the ground between Guiche's leg, by the time boy registered the blade the Overlord was already slowly inching the weapon upward with it nearly pressing onto the Gramont's groin.

Guiche's mouth was agape for several long seconds until he barely croaked out his next words, "I-I yield!"

The Overlord further increased the discomfort as he suddenly pulled out the blade in a swift but powerful motion. Guiche cringed and collapsed onto the arena floor - his hands instinctively reached out to grasp his manhood, completely unsure whether he was cut and simply didn't feel it because of his pulsing adrenaline or if he was actually left unharmed - his eyes lingered on the black blade that almost scarred him for life.

The demi-god's massive sword then pointed to Louise before being planted into the ground. The Overlord simply waited for his little master to pass her judgment upon the boy.

The pinkette snapped herself out of the daze she had received from seeing her familiar actually winning the duel. She immediately took this as her cue to speak and walked onto the stage. It was somewhat amazing to see such a quick and drastic switch of expressions, "Do you think you're forgiven, Guiche? Just so simply like that?"

The boy shuddered in response, "H-Have some mercy!"

Louise dramatically swung out her arm in a commanding gesture, her cape gave a brief but villainous swoosh, "Down on your knees then, Guiche de Gramont; swallow your pride and apologize for everything you have said!"

"Of course! As you wish!" The blondie easily accepted her demands without a second thought. He went down on both knees and bowed until his forehead touched the ground. "I, Guiche de Gramont, third son of General Gramont, hereby swear upon my name and honor that I shall thoroughly contemplate and repent for my actions today. I shall seek forgiveness from Montmorency Margarita la Fere de Montmorency and Katherine de Stanhope. I shall desist on my accusation upon the maid of her wrongdoings..." He lifted up his head with watery eyes, "Please forgive me."

Louise frowned in displeasure, "Did the son of General Gramont forget his manner at home? I hear apologies for everybody else except for I. Insulting me and trying to cover it up with such useless matters... you truly are a fool." She snapped her fingers and the Overlord merely twitched the hilt of his sword.

"I'M SORRY!" Guiche gurgled and choked as he practically slammed his forehead onto the ground with a loud smack. "A thousand humble and sincere apologies, Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere! You are not a 'zero' and I will never call you by that atrocious name ever again, you have my word! Please, please, please, forgive me!"

The young Valliere allowed her answer to stew and the tension to rack the boy's body. At last she triumphantly smirked and spoke, "Very well then, I accept your apology and forgive you, Guiche de Gramont."

Guiche let out a sigh of relief but remained bowing.

Louise spun on her heels and turned around. She flicked back her hair, "Let this be a lesson to you," her eyes then panned across the crowd, "All of you." She promptly walked away from the stage with grace and renewed confidence.

She could get used to this feeling of dominance.

Meanwhile, the Overlord learned something rather important from this duel: his little master had a temper and mean-streak that could rival even his wife's!

* * *

**Author Notes**

Another big chapter to set up, well, the setting and establish some of the characters. What can I say? I love world-building (I will try to tone it down in future chapters). Also, these chapters have been unexpectedly long - I honestly expect the average chapter for SAK to be around 6-8k words (right now, I'm hitting about 13k+ and I'm fairly certain that's not including the huge World Notes segment).

Oh, and Guiche gets beat up this chapter, there's that too. More ramblings on this on a World Notes segment.

Just a reminder but the fantasy-languages you see in this story are badly broken intentionally. For example, Höllenfeuer Drachenberg is German for Hellfire Dragon Mountain or Flamme for Flame. It's Houlienfuer Drakenberg and Flayvme here because Germanic is only 'sorta German' and not really German.

Anyways, I hope this chapter wasn't too boring for the time it took to write... It really should have been published sooner, around the end of June, but unexpected things kept popping out (most of those being my friends wanting to hang-out for hours on end).

Thank you for reading, reviewing, favoriting, following, and whatever else!

* * *

**Review Notes**

_GreyMan19_, Yes, the height being short was rather intentional, though you're right that the average gives the impression everyone is too short. Therefore an extra segment on Heights has been added to this chapter's World Notes to expand a certain part I forgot. Anyways, SAK will most likely go through the same plot-points that ZNO did; though there may be some changes here and there.

_Guest_, Yo estoy usando un traductor en línea, me disculpo por cualquier rarezas en mi discurso. Para responder a su pregunta: lo más probable es recoger algunas atención femenina, pero si él gana un harén todavía no se había visto.  
(I am using an online translator, I apologize for any oddities in my speech. To answer your question: he will most likely pick up a few female attention but whether he gains a harem has yet to be seen.)

_Logan Greenberg_, Well, that event actually did happen in the original Zero's Noble Overlord and I had no intentions of making it not happening for SAK. So there you go!

_RoughStar333_, I will most likely throw out an official announcement on ZNO after I at least finish the Fouquet Arc here in SAK. Until then, I'm seeing how well SAK thrives on its own rather than riding on the previous reputation of its forbearer.

_Creeves59_, Hey, nice to see you again! I'm still waiting for myself to finish this chapter; if you're reading this comment, then I'm finally done (hurrah!). Anyways, yep, still planning on having Mathilda join the crew. Whether the Overlord gets a mistress has yet to be seen, though I did say Mathilda's flag was set in ZNO, and it'll probably come up in SAK too; Haha.

_Twigon Halolover_, I will most likely post a warning chapter on ZNO after I finish up the Fouquet Arc; I sorta want SAK to have more content before I do that. Though, despite how early that arc is, that might be a long way off considering how slow I am...

Finally, a small thanks to AndrosvanDraco and DeadSpace123 for sending me PMs wondering when the next chapter would come out - it helped to slightly motivate me on getting back to business. On that note, please try not to get too impatient when the next chapters will arrive since I story-hop often and therefore I often won't be able to give an estimate for the next chapter (because I might not have even started it yet...).

* * *

**World Notes**

_This segment shall be dedicated to explaining the differences between Zero's Noble Overlord and Strawberry And Knight that I feel like pointing out (or has been requested by reviewers). It shall also be used to explain additional background stuff whenever I feel like it._

_Loads of bonus information but not necessary to read to enjoy the main-story. Please feel free to skip._

_[...]_

Overlord: In Zero's Noble Overlord I had intentionally left the Overlord very bare-bone in terms of characterization.

You know he was noble and you saw some glimpses of his thoughts but otherwise his character was left mostly up for interpretation. Why? Because the Overlord was a Player-Character, so I had tried to do the same in ZNO by making him a 'Reader-Character.' I wanted readers to connect to him somewhat by filling in the blanks and creating their own reasons for why he did the things he's done.

However, in Strawberry And Knight I am developing the Overlord as his own character as we'll see more of his thoughts, musings, and some of his past.

_[...]_

Heights: Refresher, average height for a Male Halkeginian Commoner is 5'3ft and Females at 5'2ft; Male Germanian Commoner are at 5'5ft and Females are at 5'4ft. Average height for a Male Halkeginian Mage is 5'5ft and Females at 5'4ft; Male Germanian Mage are at 5'8ft and Females are at 5'7ft.

When saying 'average for mages' that really describes the population of Dot-Class Mages (since they are the most numerous). As a Mage goes up the Shape-Rank the averages increases by another one-to-two inches.

Thus, the typical Male Mage is 5'5ft at Dot, 5'7ft at Line, 5'9ft at Triangle, and 6'1ft at Square, with Females one-inch smaller in general (again, Germanian Mages are around one-to-three inches taller).

This is a rule of thumb to determine what rank a mage is at from sight but it obviously can not be applied to every situation.

In fact, this observation method can be considered outdated, as it was conceived during the Age Of Chaos (roughly 6000 years ago) when Mages were fairly stronger than their current contemporary counterparts. For example, most of the current-day Square-Class Mages would probably have only ranked as an mid-to-upper Triangle-Class Mage in the past.

_[...]_

Calendar: In Zero's Noble Overlord I had used a Five-Days-to-a-Week system with a Six-Weeks-to-a-Month system. But I'll be using a different system for Strawberry And Knight (though it might never come up in the actual story).

Sixty Seconds to a Minute. Sixty Minutes to an Hour. Twenty-Six Hours to a Day. Seven Days to a Week. Five Weeks to a Month. Twelve Months to a Year. In other words: roughly 420 days/10920 hours on average for their planet to orbit around the sun, much longer than Earth's 365 days/8760 hours.

Monday is Day Of The Crown (Royalty), Tuesday is Day Of Fire (Absolute Ashirandon), Wednesday is Day Of Earth (Measureless Mundoremog), Thursday is Day Of Water (Immmortal Irisveiya), Friday is Day Of Wind (Eternal Erefoseva), Saturday is Day Of Void (Zenith Zelgis), and Sunday is Day Of The Founder (Brimir). Monday through Friday are the weekdays, meanwhile Saturday and Sunday are the weekend.

The months are Ianuarius (Month Of The Founder), Februarius (Month Of Purification), Martius (Month Of Farming), Aprilis (Month Of The Dawn), Maius (Month Of Growth), Junius (Month Of Marriage), Julius (Month Of Aristocracy), Augustus (Month Of Sacrifice), Septembris (Month Of Harvest), Octobris (Month Of Prayer), Novembris (Month of Souls), and Decembris (Month Of Truth).

_[...]_

Alviss: He is a real dwarf in Norse Mythology. His story is that he wanted to marry Thor's daughter Thrud, thus Thor set up a series of challenges to test his wisdom, however the Norse God Of Thunder actually had no plans for him to succeed. The intellectual bout of wits lasted well into the morning but, because he was a dwarf, Alviss turned to stone when the sunlight hit him.

The Familiar Of Zero canon treats Alviss as some kind of species of 'little people' though, who are statues by day and start dancing by night. Whatever the case, I am going with the TFOZ interpretation since I can easily cook up a reason/story why they would name a dining hall after Alviss.

_[...]_

Magical Decree: It is commonly known that Founder Brimir is the Patron Saint Of The Pentagon Powers who was blessed by the Gods and then taught Humanity the arcane-arts.

In the scholarly world, 'Blessed be the Magical Decree' is often believed to be an archaic way of saying 'Will of The Founder' which is the idea that Humanity must retake the Holy Lands (The Founder's birthplace) from the Elves. Note that 'By The Founder's Will' is not the same thing as this particular phrase means 'Should he allow me to, I will do his bidding.'

The modern use of 'Blessed be the Magical Decree' is an reaffirmation of the idea that Mages are righteous in all forms. The phrase is also likewise used at the end of most prayers as a small oath of confirmation.

However, due to the tumultuous times that were the Age Of Chaos, many historic facts and traditions have been skewed. Thus, 'Blessed be the Magical Decree' is not actually another way of saying 'Will of The Founder.'

'Magical Decree' is actually a form of 'Noblesse Oblige;' it is an ideal that has existed long before Brimir and had originally meant those with magic would protect the commoners and that the art of magic would be fairly spread to all humans.

Unfortunately, somewhere along the line of history, the idea became the exact opposite of its nature. 'Magical Decree' is now the idea that Mages are inherently superior as magic belonged to them and thus commoners must work under them.

_[...]_

Central Tower: Just some basic lay-out about the Central Tower.

At they very bottom contains the Alviss Dining Hall and the subsequent kitchens attached to it. Meanwhile at the very top (or as high as you can get inside the structure) is the Headmaster's Office.

Other locations/floors inside the tower are: the public bathing quarters, the library, the treasure vault, the teacher quarters, a ball room, and a storage floor. There will probably be other floors as the plot demands... it's a very big building after all.

_[...]_

Education: For Commoners, they are entirely home-schooled in everything they know. From the earliest of ages they are taught how to endure and survive in this world through manual labor. Schools do exist but they are more like a daycare and are primarily used as an additional place for children to learn how to read, write, and speak along with some basic mathematics. As such, Commoners grow up through practical hands-on experience.

Nobles are raised at an early age to be an aristocrat; from the day they are born to fifteen years of age, they are home-schooled by private tutors or their families. From their families history and life-style, to their country and royal crown, to magic and nobility, to language and religion, and so forth, Nobles are nurtured with great expectations.

When a Noble reaches sixteen year of age, they are then considered young adults, and must learn how to - in a sense - live on their own so that they may grow up as independent adults who can carry on with honor.

Thus, at this age, a Noble is typically sent to live at a school for the next three years. With the watchful eyes of their guardians gone, these young adults are expected to increase their individual social standings through their own merits.

The curriculum for a first-year student is typically a rehash of already known knowledge: history, magic, etiquettes, speech, politics, and so on. Magic is used very little (mostly a demonstration from the teachers) and almost nothing new is actually learned - the first year is primarily a mean of making sure the students have a standardize knowledge of the world around them.

By the second year a student is allowed to summon a familiar and the curriculum changes. The classes are more focused about the elements, their uses, and the various type of spells there are, thus magic is used more extensively. However, for the most part, other than summoning a familiar, the knowledge is (again) generally a rehash - the second year is primarily a method of assessing the student's magical abilities.

Finally the third year the curriculum is very similar to the previous years (again, mostly rehashed) but on the more practical side as there is a greater emphasis on project-exams. Whether it be to write an essay, hunt for reagents, working in the field, and so forth, these young adults are given many assignments to test their capabilities. The third year is primarily a way for nobles to make a name for themselves as they prepare themselves to enter society.

_[...]_

Katherine: She's a very minor character in canon TFOZ, who pretty much only appeared twice, and is only identified as 'Katie' which sounds more like a nickname.

Here in SAK she is Katherine de Stanhope - her Family Name is borrowed from a real Katherine Stanhope, who was a Countess Of Chesterfield.

I am fairly certain in ZNO that I had designed her with several roles (or with at least more screentime) than just being 'the girl Guiche cheated on.' However, that didn't happened since she was never mentioned again. But I still don't know if I'm going to give her a bigger role/more screentime at all.

I'm not sure if there was a canon-reason for Guiche dating her, so I give him a bit of a mother-complex here in SAK. Haha.

Semi-related note, in this story, there was suppose to be a third girl (a third-year student) that Guiche was also dating. I removed her though because that was pointlessly complicated, especially since the third girl would have been mentioned once and never again (the Third Year Girl only dated Guiche because she thought it was cute to date a younger guy and to stroke his ego a bit, in the end she did not get involve during the confrontation).

_[...]_

Mock-blood: This is a derogatory term that refers to Half-Breed species that contain both Human-Ancestry and Mockelem-Ancestry. They are also sometimes referred to as 'Sub-Humans.' They are almost always male, while the females are an absolute rarity.

By Halkeginia's definition: a Mockelem is a type of monster created by demons; they are malicious slander given physical form meant to defame Humanity and The Founder. Orcs, Ogres, and Giants are considered Mockelems.

When a Half-Breed population within a Mockelem Tribe grows, there is a high a tendency for them revolt and break away to form their own group or integrate with another existing group (Mockelems often treat their Mock-Blood children as extremely expendable).

Just like their parents however, Half-Breed Species hate one another (Half-Orcs would not get along with Half-Giants), and retain the same preference for human partners. While humanity as a whole dislikes Mock-Bloods, Nobles have taken notice that these half-breeds are far more reliable soldiers than the plain human Commoners - thus it is not unusual to see a country have them under their service (Germania has many Half-Breed Divisions, while Romalia has none). They are often used to fight other Mockelem Tribes or as meatshield for large excursions (like that of dragon-hunting).

In return for their service, Half-Breeds are most typically given Commoners to breed with. Thus, their tribes have been sustained like this for several hundred years now.

_[...]_

Guiche's Duel: I know there are plenty of readers who think that having the Guiche Duel in a TFOZ story means the author is a chump. I'm perfectly fine with that.

As far as I can foresee, it's pretty much impossible to avoid the Guiche Duel. Guiche is defined with as being a Prideful Womanizer which ultimately leads to this event since its in his character to do so. He will cheat and he will blame someone (it doesn't necessarily have to be with Katie and Montmorency nor Siesta).

The only I could prevent the duel was if I either: A) Rewrote Guiche's basic traits or B) Remove Guiche from the story.

I have no intentions of doing the latter.

As for the former, it was a possibility since seeing a different Guiche - possibly a more intelligent one - would have been rather refreshing. But that is not to be. I have (cliche) plans for Guiche which requires him to basically be what he was in canon (for those who have read ZNO, you - sorta - know what those plans are).

Anyways, I had originally planned for the Guiche Duel to happen a bit differently in SAK.

Louise was initially suppose to explain her expectations (amongst plenty of other things) to the Overlord since he was her familiar, which would last well until lunch-time. When the Overlord returned to the Dining Hall, he would have heard the gossip about Guiche cheating along with how the boy was blaming a servant. Seeing as how Guiche reminded the Overlord of a one whiny Sir William, (and being the noble fella he was) the demi-god would have gone and taught the boy a lesson about two-timing and not manning up to his mistakes.

In the end, I went for this simpler turn of events with the Overlord finding out sooner rather than later.

I also had the choice of allowing the Overlord to hand Guiche his ass right then and there when the duel was announced, but I decided not to. Just like ZNO, I wanted to show that Guiche is a fairly competent mage (even if he's only Dot) since he's still a child from a soldier-family.

_[...]_

Guiche's Valkyrie: In a World Notes (actually Narrator Notes) from Zero's Noble Overlord, I pretty much stated that Halkeginian Mages either did 'Word Of Powers' (title is still tentative for SAK) or 'Quick-Spelling' to cast magic. Clearly Guiche didn't use either, so what did he do?

What he did was 'Trigger-Cast' (also known as a 'Delayed-Spell'), though his is a special one since it's the Gramont Family's version (which is a trade-secret).

To explain, a Trigger-Cast is essentially the chanting of the spell beforehand but not the actual casting of it. The prepped spell is (at the same time) saved into a rune or object and will activate later when the Original Caster's Willpower goes through it. The advantage of a Trigger-Cast is, of course, the surprise element and that it uses less Willpower to activate.

The process is rather similar to creating Enchanted Item, however the method of Trigger-Cast is only guaranteed to work once as it tends to utterly break whatever object it was sealed into. It's fairly rare to see since only Dot and Line Class Spells are capable of being sealed (higher-level magic typically explodes or just don't work) and the method can't be mass-produced since Trigger-Cast ultimately only works for the caster who sealed the spell in the first place.

So while Guiche is a narcissistic idiot, I will at least acknowledge that he also a dedicated one since he knows how to Trigger-Cast.


	3. A Duel's Worth

_**Strawberry And Knight**_

Chapter Three

_A Duel's Worth_

_[The Familiar Of Zero Did What?]_

* * *

Jean de Colbert woke up with a startled grunt of surprise.

Papers flew everywhere off of his desk and his many sensitive contraptions jittered and rattled from his abrupt movements. With startling haste of panic, the man looked everywhere for his long wooden staff - it had been resting to the side of his chair but was promptly knocked over upon his awakening - and he leapt for it on the ground.

Clunching onto it for dear life, the balding man lashed out and targeted his magical foci... only to find that there was nothing in front of him save for his usual - more like _unusual_ - gadgetry of various ticks and tocks or chemical pips and pops.

In half exasperation and half relief Colbert slumped onto the ground, drenched in sweat, and let out a groan as he scrunched up his face and pinched his forehead.

_'Well now...'_ he thought to himself, _'...that was certainly a very realistic dream.'_

The professor removed his fingers from his forehead only to pinch his nose in return. He calmed his breathing and then stood up to clean up the mess he had inadvertently made - he was rather grateful that nothing had been broken or accidentally set off to explode in his haste.

As always, it seemed that Colbert had fallen asleep at his work-bench while tinkering around. That, of course, somehow led to having that terrible dream he had just woken up from.

For some reason the professor had found himself facing against the young Valliere's familiar. Back again, yesterday, at the grassy field but this time there was a grand fire devouring all in its hungry spread whilst smoke and ashes clogged the air in thick blackness, corpses all around - so many of them - with the blood pooling and cascading everywhere with a dark glimmer... and the armored knight just simply stood there unfazed by anything as it stared down at him.

Judging him.

Colbert frantically looked left and right and noticed that he wasn't actually outside the school ground. No, there were burning houses and silent screams from the flickering flames - the layout resembled that of a small settlement.

...This dying place, he recognized it as D'Angleterre, for it was the very placed that he had personally helped burned down with his own hands.

His eyes widened as he view panned across the various charred bodies - many blackened to the flesh and bones from the raging fires - and to the few that were still reasonably human-looking and healthy - if not for the fact that they were also dead. "No..." he whispered. His orders were false, there was no plague here, this entire mission was a mistake. "No...!" Innocent people had died because of him.

Colbert's eyes found themselves back to the knight's own.

Judging him.

The huge black sword was in the Familiar's hand; poised and ready for the kill. It was his executioner.

_'So... this is the end?'_ All Colbert could hear around him was the continuing noise of the ever-engulfing flames. _'Perhaps I should have died that day...'_ though he knew that his single life would not appease the many already gone. This event was the greatest shame and regret in his life that continued to haunt him even now. Why had he endured it all for so long? "If you're going to kill me then just do it." He couldn't remember, it hurt to remember, the feelings of guilt stabbed and weighed down on his heart. "End it!"

But then he heard a voice.

"Save... me..."

The weak voice of a child.

Colbert gasped as tears dripped from his eyes. That's right, he remembered now. There was a still a survivor in this burning village, a child who was barely hanging onto the strands of life. He needed to go now, he needed to save that innocent girl; dying now wouldn't solve a damn thing!

He made a vow that his power of fire was no longer meant for killing but for bettering and saving the lives around him!

"No, I can't die now!"

The ex-soldier shook his head as his hands clenched the dirt around him and his eyes noted where his staff was laying on the ground. He stared defiantly as the sword was swung down and then his legs suddenly leapt into the action to avoid the strike.

It was then that Jean de Colbert abruptly awoke from his dream.

The professor picked up the last pieces of paper and neatly stacked them together. "What does it mean...?" he mumbled to himself. Dreams and nightmares could mean many things, though no solid research had ever reached a conclusive answer. However, one common interpretation was that dreams and nightmares had a tendency to reveal things to come... if that was true then this was a dreadful premonition.

While Colbert was a man of research and science, he couldn't help but feel a slight shiver run down his spine.

The last time anything had spook him this much was when Colbert had encountered a sealed-up - but thankfully weakened - demon during one of his many research-trips. It had caused him to develop a twitch at every perceptible shadow considering how he had endured a several hours long nerve-wracking hunt of hide-and-seek in the hideous dark with that accursed demon. It took him two months to get rid of that quirk.

The man sincerely hoped that he wouldn't meet the Louise Francoise's Familiar anytime soon.

[...]

With a small click Colbert locked the door to his workroom that was simply a couple of steps away from his living quarters; just like the rooms given to the students, the ones occupied by a teacher in the enormous Central Tower were quite large - nearly thirty-percent more.

His room was rather bare - well, as fairly bare as one could get without removing the extravagant bed, table, rug, and so forth, that naturally came with the room - as everything of his personal effects were settled in his workroom, which also happened to truthfully be his bedroom filled with knicks and knacks.

Tucked in Colbert's arm was a notebook that had the compiled data from his class and the several other second-years who had just summoned their familiars yesterday. It was his job to properly go over all of it.

Barring the headmaster, Jean de Colbert was probably the most senior teacher here both in terms of age, years, and experience spent as a teacher here at the Tristain Academy Of Magic. He was unofficially the head-teacher of the staff and generally handled all manners of sorts before passing along the finished information to either the Secretary or the Headmaster himself. It really helped that Colbert enjoyed doing these things as well, which was quite a workload off the Secretary's shoulder, not to mention that plenty of the teachers also simply threw their responsibilities onto him too.

The professor placed the notebook onto his desk, tapped his fingers as he hummed, and then decided to leave it be for the moment and head out for breakfast. It was not as if he was lazy, he was very studious person, but the nightmare had thrown him into disarray; he just felt tired and he supposed that a good meal would lighten his mood.

Colbert had the entire day to himself - a privilege the rest of the Second-Year Teachers were also enjoying - so it's not like he was hard-pressed for time. So he could always finish up his duties later today.

Without further ado, the professor set off for the Alviss Dining Hall.

[...]

Colbert had awoken rather earlier today, so it unfortunately meant for him that he would have to wait a longer time before breakfast would be served. So early, in fact, that he was probably the only person part of the staff who was awake at this time - with the exception of the servants and guards who had rotating shifts.

The professor walked into the dining hall and was greeted by the typical hustle and bustle of the common-servants as they cleanly set up the tables for the morning.

Attentive as always, several of the servants had noticed him immediately - his appearance not all too unusual since he was practically the only noble who would be up and about this early in the morning for whatever possible reason they could think of. Upon silent agreement, a single butler was chosen to quickly attend to the teacher's needs, thus the younger man smoothly strode over and delivered a small bow, "How may I serve you, Professor?"

Colbert chuckled dryly, "Ah, well, perhaps a quarter-loaf of bread and a cup of coffee?"

The butler bowed again, "It shall be ready soon," and promptly left.

As the professor sat on his chair on the second-level of the dining hall, he didn't have to wait long before the butler returned with his light meal.

Though Colbert had not been descriptive with what sort of bread and coffee he wanted, the servants already knew his preferences well enough without him additionally saying so.

On his plate were four small but rather smooth and round-looking bread that made up a quarter-loaf in proportion. Colbert took a bite out of one and hummed in appreciation as the creamy-filling coated his tastebuds with sweet delight.

If he recalled correctly, the Santaduce Umputa had first come about in Romalia around two-thousand years ago. It was so well liked that it had almost become the country's representative bread - a position then held and still now held by Boyateas Zahasted, a sort of sweet-yeasted bread.

Colbert certainly enjoyed just how soft and easy it was to eat. He had first eaten this cream-filled bread about a couple years back when he had gone on a research trip in southern Romalia to investigate some fossilized remains of an ancient dragon. One of his colleagues had brought it along as a snack and, being as curious as he was, Colbert asked to have a try at one.

He simply fell in love with the taste.

After finishing up a second santaduce umputa, Colbert turned to gently pick up his cup of light-brown coffee. He took a deep but gentle whiff as he allowed the rich aroma of the drink to soothe his sense of smell.

Oh yes, now what was the story behind this one? Long before the days of the Founders, 'Kafvyee' as the Germanian called it was originally some sort of extremely potent drink that was exclusively used by their berserkers during times of war. However, to counter the massive forces of demons during the Age Of Chaos, the ritualistic-only Kafvyee was severely watered-down and then spread amongst every able-bodied warrior.

The power-drink version was then quickly renamed 'Coffee' as not to confuse it with the original 'Kafvyee' that one would drink to induce bloodrage. Eventually coffee became a highly popular drink in Germanian, though not so much in the other countries - where it was often mocked as mud-water.

Still, not all coffee was imported from Germania and there was generally a Noble Family who provided their own homegrown variety for their respective country.

In particular, the one that Jean de Colbert was drinking was a type of milk-coffee - the idea being Tristainian in origin and known as 'Cafau Leit' - called Choprofolat Laineide. The man quite favored this drink because it complemented his santaduce umputa in perfect harmony.

It didn't take very long for Colbert to finish up his remaining two cream-filled bread, however - after one more sip of his coffee - the man simply sat in his seat as he stared into his swirling dark liquid. He was completely lost in thought, his haunting nightmares overriding even the inner-peace that would normally accompany him after his usual comfort meal. By the time he broke out of his daze, the Alviss Dining Hall was quickly being filled up with people and breakfast was just about ready to be served.

The surrounding comments from his fellow teachers caught his opened ears.

"My word," a middle-aged female teacher who taught third-year wind complained, "Did that child really need to bring in that familiar of hers into this sacred dining hall?"

"A little uncouth but she is a Valliere," another but younger female teacher who taught the first-year water answered, "You know how that family is."

"Now, now, calm yourselves," a rather portly man who taught first-year earth cut in, "It's down there and we're up here; the thing isn't going to bother us."

"You know what I meant," the middle-aged woman rebuked with a only slightly raised voice, "The girl brought in a half-giant. Those putrid mock-bloods don't deserve to be anywhere near our noble presence, let alone dine in the same room as us!"

"Stop your squawking, Elizabeth," the aged Third-Year Fire Teacher drawled out as he leaned forward and rested an elbow on the table, "If it starts making trouble then just blast it with some magic! Until then, be quiet so the rest of us can enjoy breakfast; it's bad enough with the half-breed already being here, we don't need your nagging fouling up the air too."

"Why I never...!" the woman thus named Elizabeth huffed out in an indignant voice. She noticed that several of the other staff were in agreement with the aged teacher and so quickly let the issue go.

Colbert mildly shrunk in seat at the mention of Louise's Familiar being in the same room that he was in. He was really hoping not to see the armored-knight anytime soon, at least not today anyways.

His attention was pulled away when a soft voice called for him.

"A newgot for your thought, Jean?"

The Effeminate-Looking Gallian Man, who could easily be mistaken for a very pretty lady, was a rather young teacher - if not the youngest here - who taught first-year wind. His name was Alexander de Brigander and he always appeared to have his eyes closed in a smiling manner and kept a cool air of serenity around him.

Colbert wasn't sure why but it seemed that the young man had a certain amount of respect for him. At the very least, Alexander had once told him that he looked up to him as fellow teachers.

"If I recall correctly, Miss Valliere happens to be one of your favorite student. Would you happen to know why she would bring in her familiar to the dining hall?"

The middle-aged professor awkwardly scratched his cheek, "Well, Miss Valliere has... some self-esteem issues."

Alexander hummed thoughtfully with a finger below his delicate chin, "Ah, because of her exploding magic." He nodded to himself, "I see, summoning a familiar must be a very big deal for her."

"Yes, that's more or less it," Colbert replied curtly, just hoping that the conversation was over now. Truthfully, he didn't feel comfortable talking about this, it was an issue of privacy since Louise Francoise had only ever - as far as he knew - confided in him about her problems. It didn't feel right to discuss about this unless he needed help to help her.

"Poor girl," the Gallian said with a sigh, "I heard she had the highest scholarly-grade last year, it's a shame that she can't properly cast magic... She would have made quite the mage, I'm sure."

Colbert nodded and quietly agreed with that sentiment.

[...]

Breakfast was an affair that went by quickly for Jean de Colbert.

The morning meal was served, the Headmaster gave his usual short speech, the daily prayer was done, and food was eaten. Other than having to wait until Louise Francoise and her familiar had completely left the building, everything was much the same as every other day.

The man swiftly went back to his room, grabbed the notebook, opened it up, adjusted his glasses, and got right down to business.

The Protector Of Fire, The Protector Of Water, The Protector Of Earth, The Protector Of Wind, The Weapon Of Fire, The Weapon Of Water, The Weapon Of Earth, The Weapon Of Wind, The Honor Of Fire, The Honor Of Water, The Honor Of Earth, The Honor Of Wind...

The more generic runic-phrases - which bequeath equally generic abilities - made up a majority of the transcribed runes, at a glance Colbert would say around seventy percent of the familiars had them. The more uncommon phrases made up about twenty percent if he had to guess and the more odder combinations were the last ten percent of them.

Colbert had quite a bit of interest in checking out those odd runic-phrases.

Surprisingly, four of the students from his homeroom class had made it onto the list. The professor playfully adjusted his glasses as a smile grew on his face; he was very proud of them.

Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt Zerbst's Familiar - a Hellfire Saladrake she had named Flavyme - had the prestigious title of 'The Spirit Of Fire,' which supposedly meant that it had the blessings of the Fire God itself. But, more loosely translate, the title could also mean 'The Passionate Heat' which described Miss Zerbst fairly well and making it a very fitting familiar.

Vincent Hensworth ze voi Dickinson's Familiar - a Gravelord Spietle named Asche Zachery - was given the formal title of 'The Silent Guardian Of Sleep.'

Mary Lain de la Mayweather's Familiar - a Mountain Crown Goat she had cheerfully named Pegne'Iat - had the title of 'The Faithful Watcher.' This phrase was not all too unusual, however that title was generally only seen on more sharp-sighted animals.

Tabitha de Loiret's Familiar - some kind of Wind Dragon that she had taken to name as Sylphid - had the very strange title of 'The Songtress Of The Melodious Wind.' This title wasn't just strange, it was also unique; it was the first time Colbert had ever seen this particular title in all of his years working at the academy.

With that said, the professor quickly went over to check the remaining students on the list.

Colbert recorded and organized the student's name, their familiar's species, the locations of the runes, the specific standalone runes and their resulting combined phrase, the student's element and potential growth, and several other minor tidbits.

When he had finished, he doubled-checked the list again.

A frown appeared on his face, he had the oddest feeling that he was forgetting someone or something. _'But who?'_ The man hummed questioningly as he scratched his forehead and tapped his quill repeatedly on the notebook. When that jogged nothing of his memories, Colbert began to repeat the names of the second-year students out loud to himself but to no avail. He closed his eyes and he continued to rack his thoughts for answers.

Two judging eyes suddenly leapt out at him.

Colbert experienced a cold shiver down his spine, "Oh dear..." and he groaned. He had completely forgotten to take a look at Miss Valliere's Familiar's runes yesterday afternoon. Briefly, the thought of ignoring this issue had crossed his mind but he was a teacher and very well couldn't just intentionally turn in an incomplete report. He rubbed the sides of his eyes with his thumb and index finger, "Oh dear..." and shook his head in rather grim displeasure.

He had planned to avoid the half-giant but now it seemed that he had to actually go seek it out!

[...]

Colbert opened his door only to find a somewhat startled Alexander with his hand raised up in a knocking-gesture.

The other teacher quickly straightened himself out and spoke, "Oh, Jean, I was just about to call for you."

"I see, is there something you need from me, Alex?" he returned politely.

"Well, I'm not sure why, but it seems that the Headmaster is looking for you."

Colbert only raised a brow slightly in response. It wasn't often that the Headmaster would call for him and that generally meant that something was not good. _'A problem now? Of all times for it to happen...'_ He nodded. "Thank you, I'll see him right away then."

The Gallian smiled and nodded back, "I'll let you be on your way then," and stepped aside from the doorway. He gave a small wave as the professor walked pass and then also left for his own business.

Colbert's thought flew here and there - Louise Francoise and her familiar having been quickly forgotten once more - as he wondered why the Headmaster was calling for him. Were there more complaints about the explosions coming from his lab, again? Did the wizard need him to retrieve some sensitive artifacts out in the middle of nowhere, again? Where the gnomes bothering the guards, again? Maybe there was another group of bandits prowling around near the school that needed to be removed, again?

It was probably none of those. His gut feeling told him that it wasn't going to be anything remotely that simple.

Regardless, his thoughts were left to stew; the trip to the Headmaster's office was quite a long one due to it being positioned near the very top of the Central Tower.

It was the pleasant voice of the secretary that returned him to reality.

"Good morning, Jean," she greeted him upon approach.

The middle-aged man fumbled somewhat over his tongue, "G-Good morning, Rhea."

Colbert had a bit of a one-sided crush on her; love at first sight as it were. Was it because of her fair skin or her modest yet hardworking attitude? Was it her serene olive green eyes that caught his own or because of her lush dark green hair that was cleanly swept back and tied into a short pony-tail? Perhaps it was the thin-framed glasses that sat cutely over the bridge of her nose?

She flashed him a small smile, "Have you made any progress on your latest invention?"

"O-Oh, yes! I plan to it demonstrate its capability to my homeroom soon enough! I call it an 'engine,' it's made from primarily fr-"

"Jean," she giggled, "Please, not now, you can explain it to me later. We don't want to keep the Headmaster waiting too long, do we?"

"R-R-Right..." Colbert embarrassingly cleared his throat, "Um, well, t-tonight, dinner?"

"Of course, I wouldn't miss it," the secretary agreed, she even gave him a sly wink.

The professor straightened himself out with a somewhat goofy but cheerful face, "Ah... well, I'll be seeing you later then, Rhea." He nodded his head before pushing open the two large doors that lead into the Headmaster's office.

The inside of the room was the same as it was everyday.

Two empty-armored knights with a shield and spear in hands flanked the entranceway. A large pentagon-shaped rug sat neatly in the center of the room. Bookshelves filled the sidewalls and were stacked with numerously illegible tomes of vastly different sizes and many obscure but minor items. The grand-looking wooden desk that came into immediate view was backed by a singularly huge window with a beautiful view of the vast skies and distant lands.

The Headmaster, hands behind his back, was looking out said window. The sunlight silhouetted his frame and wrapped him in an imposing aura.

Malbis Rulen Ozmandia - or Old Osmand as many have come to call him now - was the oldest mage alive in Halkeginia; he was the very man who had founded and established the Tristain Academy Of Magic nearly four-hundred years ago.

The secrets of his longevity were never discovered but, because Malbis was a renowned adventurer back in his prime, there were many rumors that he owned multiple artifacts that could extend his life - there were even less savory rumors that accused him of sacrificing his humanity and making contracts with demons to prolong his death instead.

Nobody but him knew the truth of the matter.

Tristain-born and probably the closest thing to a mythical Pentagon-Class Mage, Old Osmand was described as having the strength to decimate armies with but a flick of his wand. His very presence alone was a deterrent against any plans of attack against Tristain and even his homeland preferred to keep on his good side.

Right behind the Founder himself, Malbis was considered the strongest mage ever seen in all of history. At least that was before a certain Tristainian Soldier by the epitaph of Iavictorem Of The Heavy Wind made his presence known in the last thirty years. Now Old Osmand shared the title of strongest with the nobody-knows-where-they-are Iavictorem.

But Malbis Rulen Ozmandia had a certain quirk of character.

"Mister Colbert," the Headmaster addressed him without turning around, "Do you know what color of underwear Miss Longueville is wearing today?"

It was the simple fact that the old wizard was a pervert. Almost completely unashamed of his actions - often playing it off as senility - he had little qualms about acting like an idiot even in the presence of other Nobles. He only retained dignity and poise when facing a member of Royalty but even then he wasn't afraid of speaking his mind to those of the Crown.

The middle-aged man coughed, "Um, no... Sir."

"Well, it's white!" The much older man turned around with narrowed brows, "WHITE!" and scoffed, "Black would suit her better!" Colbert imaginatively agreed but wouldn't be caught dead saying that aloud. "And it's cotton! COTTON! It should be wondrous silk, Mister Colbert! Founder knows that I pay her well enough that she could start her own lingerie store! Where and what is that secretary of mines spending all of her money on?!"

Colbert could only wryly chuckle at Old Osmand's usual rants.

"I can hear you, you know," Rhea de Longueville stated simply. The door was slightly ajar and her dull deadpanned expression was clear to see for both male occupants.

"Good," Old Osmand retorted. He swiftly plunged his hands into his robe's pocket, pulled out a bag of money, and threw it to the woman. "Now don't come back until you've bought yourself some lacy underwear! Agente Proyvatic! Vivian's Segratio! I don't care what brand! Just choose something erotic! It's a woman's duty to look just as attractive as she is _dressed_ and just as attractive as she is _underdressed_!"

Longueville sighed. She briskly walked into the room and then casually beat on the Headmaster until he was a twitching mess on the floor. With that done she quickly strode out.

When she passed by Colbert, she left him a whisper, "What kind of lingerie would you like me to wear tonight?"

The professor was absolutely speechless, nothing but croaks come out of his throat.

She stifled a giggle and smirk and then quietly closed the door behind her.

Slowly, Old Osmand rose up from the floor. He went to grab his wooden staff from its resting place on the side of a bookshelf and tapped it onto the floor. The room became silent and was suddenly proofed against sound leaving the domain of his office. "Well, now we can get down to business." His serious face no longer contained a hint of his usual bumbling self.

Colbert snapped to attention, "Yes, Sir."

"Tell me, Colbert, what is your impression of Miss Valliere's Familiar?"

"It is... a threatening anomaly," the ex-soldier choose his words somewhat slowly, "It is intimidating enough that I do not feel as if I would survive a fight against it." He paused briefly, "It frightens me, Headmaster, in the same way a demon induces primal fear."

"Quite right," the old wizard agreed with a small brush of his beard. "The rumors pegs the familiar as a Half-Giant; what is your opinion?"

"...I am hesitant to believe that it is merely a half-giant."

"As I am."

"...There is also something I have yet to mention, Headmaster."

"Oh? And what would that be?"

"During the familiar summoning ritual yesterday, I had... _forgotten_ to take record of the runes on Miss Valliere's Familiar. If I had, then we would have had more insight on the nature of this thing's capabilities..."

Old Osmand nodded his head, "Troubling but understandable, Colbert. Don't blame yourself, I trust that you made the right choice in that situation." He gestured for the teacher to follow him to the window, "That is why I called you here, Colbert. It seems that a situation has cropped up, one that may reveal a little more of our mysterious familiar."

With a mutter and wave of his staff, the glass window shimmered brightly and adopted a more liquid-like quality. Images soon appeared on its surface: a crowd of students were gathered around the main arena of the Vestri Court.

"What am I looking at, Sir?"

"A duel that is soon to begin."

Colbert frowned instantly, "A duel? But those have been forbidden under the Acun Duleu Policy unless..." he gasped, "You cannot be serious, Headmaster!" His eyes zoomed onto the lone occupant waiting around on the center of the stage, "You can't honestly allow Mister Gramont to fight; he has no real experience in combat and he's only a dot-mage!"

"I'm well aware of the possible dangers to the young lad," Old Osmand instantly rebuked in a semi-harsh voice, "It troubles me to allow a student to take this risk but this only came to be because of his own doing. Whatever the case, it has given us an opportunity to observe."

"What if the thing goes out of control? Someone could die here, Malbis!" Colbert was fuming, "Where are all the other teachers?! This duel must be stopped immediately!"

"Calm yourselves, Jean!" the Headmaster barked out in an authoritative tone which quickly silenced the middle-aged man, "I have already notified all the teachers and guards to ignore this duel; no laws have been legally broken here - the duel _will_ continue." His cold glare raged against Colbert's own nasty glare. "Your concerns have been duly noted," he raised his left pinky-finger that had a small ring on it, "Beneath the primary arena is a spell capable of restraining even a Elemental Spirit. If Miss Valliere's Familiar's crosses a lin-"

"It'll be too late when the line is crossed."

"_If_. If the line is crossed," the Headmaster reprimanded, "Are you so quick to both condemn the Gramont Boy to a fate of death and the familiar to a life-style of murder?"

Jean de Colbert grimly gritted his teeth, "There must be a better precaution than this!"

"Tell me then, Jean, would you like me to stop this duel right now? Would you have have me _maybe_ save Mister Gramont's life? Would you allow me strip Miss Valliere of her familiar on the grounds that it is _merely_ potentially dangerous?"

"There is no need to take away her fa-"

"No, there is no need, but it is the best method of preventative-danger that you are asking for." Old Osmand allowed his next words to sink in slowly, "As much as you wish to shelter them, Jean... the danger of Miss Valliere's Familiar is something we either learn _now_ or _never_."

Inner-turmoil raged inside Colbert. He couldn't just do that to Louise Francoise, he knew how important a familiar was to the young girl. Just because he was scared didn't mean he had the right to take it away from her. He took in a slow but shallow breath to sooth himself.

"Are you calm now, Jean?"

"...Yes, Sir."

No more was said between the two mages as they merely turned to face the scrying mirror.

Now they simply and silently waited for the event to unfold.

[...]

Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt Zerbst found the daily life at the Tristain Academy Of Magic to be one of a very dull existence.

Her usual past-times - which involved seducing males, taunting envious females, and teasing Louise Francoise - were starting to become stale. It was not surprising considering how that was essentially her basic routine for the entirety of her first year at school.

The Tristain Academy Of Magic just wasn't exciting to Kirche and the lack of duels had a lot to do with it. In Germania, duels were something that happened quite often and were even encouraged amongst the student-body; if there was a problem then you solved it with a duel. Here, in Tristain though, there was an explicit 'No Duel Policy' which prevented Nobles from challenging one another - this unfortunately allowed a majority of the students to gloat or insult others with very little formal opposition.

In Kirche's opinion, most of the Tristainian Nobles were conceited cowards who probably couldn't handle the heat when the going got hot.

Thus, this duel between Guiche and Louise's Familiar, was a major breath of fresh air in her mostly dull year - the only other exciting event that she could name was the recent Springtime Familiar Ritual in which she had summoned her precious Flayvme.

Disheartingly however was that the duel might not even happen anymore.

The twenty-minute mark had already come and gone but Louise and her familiar were still nowhere to be seen on the Vestri Court; people were becoming bored and restless and so quite a few of the audience had already left elsewhere.

Kirche could easily imagine that the pinkette was probably still yelling indignities at armored-familiar and simply wasting time with her outburst. _'Little Louise really needs to reign in that temper of hers.'_

At this rate the duel might as well become canceled.

Such a thing was an honest shame to Kirche as she was looking forward to it.

Apparently Tabitha was of the same opinion. Being shielded from the crowd by her dragon, the Gallian girl was simply standing up while reading a book. But her eyes were not on the text, they were actually staring pleadingly to Kirche.

Kirche easily understood the intention of her best friend's gaze. It was rare for Tabitha to take interest in anything and anything the bluette found interesting so did Kirche too find interesting - if she didn't find it interesting already. As they were best friends and had coinciding goals, Zerbst was more than happy to find a way to keep Guiche from leaving the arena.

The Germanian girl gave her familiar a light kick to action, "Flayvme, head for the blond boy in the middle there." The Hellfire Saladrake flickered his tongue in acceptance and quickly scurried to the arena. As Kirche was sitting atop the lizard-like beast, every step made had given her round breasts a certain bounce to them which easily attracted the eyes of the heated crowd to her - either either out of arousal or envy.

Guiche - for his own part - was wary of her approach.

Despite the fact that he flirted with nearly every female he encountered, he did not get along well with the busty girl who was essentially his opposite. He would always fall back to an aloof formality and keep a cool distance whenever he would have to deal with her.

In a manner of speaking, they were both predators amongst prey, like wolves amongst sheep. However, Kirche was a wolf that frolicked plainly with sheep, Guiche on the other hand was a wolf in sheep's clothing. If there was one person in this school who could see through his disguise and righteously call him out on his ways, then it would be none other than Kirche.

Not that it mattered at this point; there was nothing left for her to blackmail him with - his secret was already out.

Still, Guiche was wary of dealing with Kirche.

The fact that she was suddenly coming over to meet him, now of all times, was more than enough to make him a tad suspicious of her motives.

The boy kept his rose-wand up to his mouth, hiding the small frown of displeasure that he had on his face, "Augusta Frederica," he called out to her using only her middle-name, their conversation could be heard from the surrounding crowd, "Is there something you need from me?"

Kirche merely smiled and held back her ferocious predatory grin, "Oh, indeed, Rosvige Kanben, I do need something from you."

Guiche knew a bit about the other languages in Halkeginia - just another thing he brushed up on to impress the ladies - and, as far as his knowledge went, 'Rosvige Kanben' meant 'Rosy Boy' in Germanic. Notably, the last time they had spoken, she had called him 'Gelvye Gablumcen' which was translated as 'Yellow Daisy.'

His gut always told him that she was insulting him with such nicknames.

"And that would be?"

"Oh, you know, you just seem to be getting rather angsty about the duel~"

Guiche barely raised his voice, "Me? Angsty?"

"Am I wrong?" she questioned in an expression like that of a mother nicely scolding a not-so-truthful child, "It seems to me that you're getting a bit jittery about the duel~"

Guiche did not take her baiting words so easily and kept cool, "Thank you for your concern but it is nothing for you to worry about. Well then, will that be all, Augusta Frederica?"

Unfortunately for him, Kirche had him hooked already - she had only needed him to subtlety remind himself about his own position. Now that she knew that he would stick to the duel when it would happen, she now needed to make sure that he would wait around for the duel so that it _could_ happen.

_'That shouldn't be too hard,'_ she mused. "Oh dear no, that isn't all, Rosvige Kanben," she replied all too happily, "You seem quite bored waiting around for Louise's Familiar to get here," and crossed her legs quite sensually with a slightly arched back, "Would you like to relieve some time with me?"

Guiche rolled his rose-wand in between his fingers - almost contemptuously so. "I shall have to respectfully decline that offer of yours." It was also at this moment that he realized that the Germanian Girl was stalling for time.

The redette laughed his answer off. "What a shame. I was sure that we could have found something productive to do," she purred in a rather taunting manner - not that the oogly-eyed male audience could tell the difference in her tone. "But that's fine, we would have probably missed the duel if we did have some fun with each other."

"Indeed," Guiche replied curtly and decided to cut to the point, "I wouldn't want to miss out on this duel either; I won't allow a mock-blood to insult me and get away with it."

Kirche inwardly smirked, _'Well, that was easy enough.'_ He played along but now he couldn't take back his words; she had him snared. "What a coincidence, _I'm_ looking forward to the duel too." She gave a light kick to Flavyme to return to Tabitha's side and waved her hand, "Good luck, Rosvige Kanben."

The Hellfire Saladrake sauntered back and parked himself at his original position in the crowd. His tongue gave a flicker as his master lowered herself onto him and allowed her large breasts to rest over his head.

Upon her best friend's return, Tabitha spoke quietly, "Thank you."

"It was my pleasure, Tabby," Kirche replied in kind and started up a small chit-chat, "It's going to be a very interesting duel, isn't it~?"

The Gallian Girl nodded her head.

Unlike the many students here, Kirche and Tabitha did not believe that Louise Francoise's Familiar was just an ordinary Half-Giant.

Though the Zerbst did not know what her friend's reasoning was based on, she herself wouldn't be able to explain why she thought so either... But, simply put, the armored-entity had a certain aura around him - akin to ancient yet powerful fire - and it attracted her to him; it was odd, as a Fire Mage, she felt some sort of primordial connection with the strange familiar.

Kirche was very much looking forward to this duel and couldn't wait for it to start.

She was quite excited.

[...]

Montmorency Margarita la Fere de Montmorency stood alone in the audience - the crowd unwilling to stand next to her - with her arms folded, as she waited rather menacingly for the duel between her ex-secret-boyfriend and the Zero's Familiar to begin.

There was hardly any real reason for why she was attending the fight; she honestly did not believe that a Half-Giant could beat a Mage. After the earlier event, she would have been better off spending her time by holing herself in her room and then concocting some kind of potion for revenge - like something that could give Guiche diarrhea for a week.

So why was she here? Montmorency wasn't all too sure herself. It was a spontaneous decision to come.

The blondette tapped her foot impatiently.

_'Curse that imbecile!'_ Her outward expression promised pain to anyone who would interrupt her foul tirade. _'That dirty, cheating, low-life! I should have expected him to be unable to keep his hands to himself!'_

The pace of her tapping increased and her eyes homed into the browned-hair girl that she could consider her rival-in-love.

_'What's so good about that first-year anyways? She's plain-looking and unremarkable, her voice is a pitch too high and her eyes are droopy, she's also just some girl from a low-ranking Noble Family... There's nothing special about her at all!'_

She ground her teeth from pure frustration.

Her eyes quickly darted back to Guiche de Gramont.

_'I hope you get mauled by a dragon! Or be ripped apart by demons!'_

She so dearly wanted someone to wipe that smug smile off of his face.

[...]

The previous night before Tabitha had attempted to spy on Louise Francoise's Familiar.

Though the Valliere's Familiar was not an immediate enemy, it was indeed an abnormality - an unknown - and therefore a dangerous factor.

She had used the slight of wind to probe the entity's defenses - it transmitted to her the feel of its warm and rough yet smooth black armor as though she was touching it herself. Her method was so subtle that only a Square-Class Wind Mage or the Headmaster would have been able to detect her intruding winds.

But her information-gathering was cut abruptly short.

The supposed half-giant had quickly discovered her trespassing and... it _did_ something.

The air around the familiar had heated up and buffeted against her cool night wind. It was clearly unnatural and the sudden counter had caused her to cut loose her spell. It was too precise, too controlled; the familiar must have noticed her, it must have been intentional. Even her closer inspection after breakfast did not yield much results, just more things that she had already hypothesized.

But now this duel was a perfect opportunity to learn more about it.

Tabitha's eyes left the pages of her current book. The crowd was opening up to let through Louise Francoise and her familiar - the supposed half-giant's towering figure and distinct silhouette was quite easy to spot.

There were no overt actions on her part but the Gallian's senses and mind went into overdrive as she analyzed the knight's every movement.

Fluid and sturdy movement; no excess weight, poise refined, battlefield capable. Thick armor but silent; lack of stress in gait. Sword obviously deadly.

Guiche spoke. In response the Familiar cracked its neck.

The referee announced the duel. Guiche introduced himself.

Louise identified her familiar as 'Siegeinherd' and 'Dragonarok Knightmare.' Unusual, therefore noted - further investigation needed.

Louise left the arena. Referee started the duel and also left.

Guiche flicked his wand. Petal fell off. Transmuted into a Bronze Valkyrie.

_'Slow,'_ Tabitha's mind noted off-handedly. In the time it took Guiche de Gramont to complete that single action, she could have eliminated him in at least twenty different methods.

Familiar still not reacting; intentional inaction. Studying foe? Curiosity or genuine precaution?

Guiche summons more Bronze Valkyries. Still no reaction from Familiar; definite inaction.

Naturally passive? No, first action enacted by the Familiar. Valkyries counter with a by-the-book circular formation.

Valkyrie - designate V1 - attacked with a spear. Spear broke against the chestplate. Familiar reached out and crushed V1's head in hand.

Armor tough enough to destroy impacting bronze, noted. Enough physical strength to crush bronze with little resistance, noted. Comparison to an average Half-Giant's endurance and strength needed; further investigation for exact limitations also needed.

All remaining Valkyries struck out. Familiar destroyed another Valkyrie - designate V2. Valkyries scattered.

Valkyrie - designate V3 - aimed for head. Spear caught, pulled in. Promptly destroyed by fist-to-face contact.

Valkyrie - designate V4 - sneak attack on back. Familiar turned around, previous captured spear still in hand, thrusted out weapon. V4 utterly destroyed along with spear.

Faster than size suggests, noted. Not easy to surprise, noted. Current recommendation: engage at a distance. No range capability determined, further investigation needed.

Guiche summoned more Bronze Valkyries - designate V9-16 labeled.

V9 and V10 are incomplete, currently immobilizing the Familiar's legs. Quickly dispatched.

Guiche casts Ground Pound. Familiar momentarily paused, still escaped by charging out. V11, V5, and V7 are casualties.

Guiche casts Earth Tower. Familiar momentarily flinched, still managed to shift arms and block the continuous spell.

V6, V8, V12, V13 jump onto Familiar. Guiche casts Shattered Earth. Previously designated valkyries exploded, view of arena obscured by dust cloud.

Guiche declared a premature victory. Unknown action - V14, V15, and V16 are apparently destroyed under cover, a mangled Valkyrie was tossed at Guiche's feet.

Familiar clapped hand three times. Genuine applause? Taunting? Further investigation needed.

Armor shows no sign of wear from dot-class earth explosion, noted. Familiar shows equal signs of no fatigue, noted.

Familiar unsheathed sword and struck between Guiche's legs. Intentional miss, clear intimidation tactic. Guiche yields.

With the proper end of the duel, the processes of Tabitha's mind and senses dimmed - but only slightly as she continued to observe the situation. With the duel being recorded so succinctly, she began to organize and file away all of her new information. The duel itself was double-checked for its validity so that it could be later reviewed at her own precise leisure. Her conjectures and theories were separated between confirmed, unconfirmed, and discarded. New objectives and investigations were added on her list of things to do. Her strategies were revised and would be cross-examined later as well.

When that was all completed, the girl allowed herself a brief moment to break her focus.

She blinked once to rest her eyes and then immediately went back to concentrating to examine Louise Francoise's Familiar.

[...]

Katherine de Stanhope was a simple young maiden and like most girls at her age had developed an interest in the opposite sex.

As a student at the prestigious Tristain Academy Of Magic she was considered a young adult who could make decisions for herself. That alone gave her some more courage to seek out love. She thought she had found that with Guiche de Gramont but it turned out not to be and the two-timing cheat broke her heart.

She had her suspicions, that Guiche was already dating Montmorency, yet she naively ignored them. Her Guiche couldn't possibly be cheating on her... could he? Yes, yes, he was.

Katherine slapped Guiche and then ran away, crying her heart out in anguish. How could she be so stupid? Her best friends came over to her room and began to comfort her, she merely sobbed with her eyes hidden behind her hands as they soothingly stroked her back.

That's when the gossip began.

For some reason, Guiche had challenged the familiar of some second-year girl named Louise Francoise to a duel. All of the first-years were getting rather riled by it. They had all seen duels before, quite often really as children, but there was something different about duels that were fought for honor and prestige rather than those of a simple issue of formality or practice.

Katherine's friends were just as interested in the duel as many others.

So they half-convinced and half-dragged the fairly passive girl to the Vestri Court.

They were lucky to get a front-row view of the arena, as many of the other first-years stayed in the background. However, that was only because the older students had recognized her as 'the girl who Guiche cheated on' so they gave her some breathing room out of pity. Katherine found the attention to be less than pleasant.

For the most part, the young maiden paid little attention to her surroundings. The chattering of the audience - and even that of her best friends - went unheard, the sight of the crowd went unseen, the warmth of the sun went unfelt... she was simply too gloomy.

In particular, Katherine actively avoided looking at the arena and one other spot. She couldn't stand to look at Guiche de Gramont; not because she hated him, no, it was because she didn't want to look at the person she loved yet did not love her back. Neither could she stand to look at Montmorency Margarita la Fere de Montmorency; a sense of jealously at the other girl for holding the boy's initial affections yet also a sense of understanding as they were both led around with by him.

The girl was only still here because she was too timid and too tired to just walk away as her friends continued to both coo her and excitedly wait for the duel to start.

And soon the duel started.

Katherine ignored most of the fight. She winced ever so slightly whenever Guiche spoke, his sweet voice filling her ears once more only to be quickly repulsed by the bitter feeling of hearing them again.

Then the explosion happened.

At the sight of Guiche nearly being cleaved from the bottom-up, her heart frantically raced and she had almost leapt up into the arena. Yet, at that sight of the Gramont begging on the floor for his life, she felt a mix of emotions that she could not discern - though a small amount of satisfaction was definitely in there.

Now the crowd was silent.

The atmosphere was not dark nor oppressive but neither was it warm and energetic... it was simply filled with shock and disbelief - hardly anybody could believe in the outcome of the duel.

As soon as the pink-haired girl and her familiar left, the first to show any reaction besides stunned silence was the Germanian Girl named Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt Zerbst as she humorously laughed, plucked Tabitha de Loiret away, and then had her Hellfire Saladrake slither on after the previous leaving duo. The next to move were Montmorency with a headstart and then Katherine herself.

The two girls rushed toward Guiche's side, concern truly etched on their face; they knelt next to him and called out his name in small panick as they slowly tried to get him onto his feet. But, despite their tending of him, the boy merely kept on his knees - facing staring into the ground with little movement.

"Monmon, Katie, I'm fine... I'm just fine..." he spoke quietly and softly, "I...I'm sorry."

Katherine was not sure how she felt when she heard those words.

Her heart still yearned for him but could she still forgive him?

That was -_ perhaps_ - a story for another time.

[...]

Siesta of Tarbes was an ordinary girl who did ordinary things.

She was a simple maid at the Tristain Academy Of Magic and did simple things like washed the laundry, cooked the food, or carried the furniture and so forth.

Yet, somehow, she found herself in unordinary situations.

The first had occurred just yesterday night. It was suppose to have been the usual routine of watering the circular garden that surrounded the Central Tower but she had unexpectedly encountered a familiar during her shift. Now, that by itself wasn't all too unusual as there were quite a few nocturnal-types of creatures, but the familiar she had met was a Half-Giant. It scared her witless to see such a dangerous thing appear almost under the moonlight - and right behind her no less!

She was sure that it was checking her out and she for one did not want that sort of attention directed at her.

Certainly, before the incident, she had entertained the thoughts of being ravaged from a half-breed in good jest, perhaps even a few times after it too - her imaginations no thanks to those raunchy books she often read - but when push came to shove... it was, well, too scary. She thanked the Founder that nothing happened that day.

The next had occurred today and that was more of a complicated affair.

She had merely picked up a perfume bottle that some blond noble boy had dropped and tried to return it. Soon a dispute of some sort had popped-up between said noble and two other girls. And then after that the noble had went on to accuse her of ruining his reputation. It was all just happening too fast; Siesta's eyes were practically spinning!

She could barely speak in her defense, the only sounds that came out of her mouth were the odd sputters caused by panic.

Then the Half-Giant from last night arrived and everything went to hell.

Why was he here? That's a silly question, the maid chided herself derisively, she already knew why the he was here: he had decided that she was his woman - everyone else surely thought the same at that moment. Like all creatures, Half-Giants were sort of territorial yet protective like that; so she believed. The maid couldn't possibly imagine any other conceivable reason for the Familiar to interfere otherwise.

_'Why couldn't it have been a knight in shining armor or a prince charming?!'_

The entity had strutted in between her and the noble boy, cared little for the authority of its master, crushed a wand, and then got challenged to a duel! It all sounded quite romantic really and would have made for a decent story if it wasn't actually happening to her. But that was none of Siesta's business as she had wordlessly jolted away from the scene; She didn't want to be anywhere near either the Noble Brat or the Half-Giant Familiar.

So, right now, Siesta tried to busy herself - doing anything and everything to keep her mind off the duel and its participants.

By now the fight should have been over and she dreaded the results. A noble in the front who could punish her... and a half-breed in the back who she didn't want near her behind for obvious reasons. It would have been so nice if the two could just kill each other and therefore leave her alone - she just wanted a return to her ordinary life.

The three large kitchens of the academy was abuzz with noise and activity. Preparing breakfast, lunch, and dinner on time for hundreds of Nobles and more casually for the equally hundreds of Commoners at the school was a near around-the-clock job that could always keep a person real busy with work.

Siesta was in the third kitchen but she couldn't keep entirely away from the duel. The other servants were chattering amongst each other, speculating and even betting, on the outcome of the duel - many wished that they could have had the free-time to watch it there in person. It was hard to ignore since it was the only thing being talked about.

Then with a bang and a clang - easily drowned out in the loud ambient noises - a certain maid by the name of Alice from a village called Liddell, a black-haired beauty who was a bit touched in the head, had entered the kitchen. Her eyes darted from one place to another before spotting and locking onto Siesta. The maid easily weaved through the crowd with a bizarre grace that wouldn't have been out of place from a competent fighter as she arrived at her friend's location.

"Siesta!" the maid called out, "I have seen the most wonderful of things!"

The young woman from Tarbes could only smile wryly. She could have made an educated guess about what Alice had seen but then it wouldn't have been fair considering that the only reason Alice had seen it anyways _was_ because they had traded duties. Still, Siesta humored her friend, "Oh? What ever could that be?"

Alice clasped her hands together and sighed dreamily.

"A frightening knight, as black as night~! Tall and strong, a sword just as long~! A noble boy on his knees, begging for mercy, see~? A tiny girl in pink, a cold medicine she did make them all drink~!" She sang in song before reverting back to normal - or at least what counted as normal for her, "Dreadful lack of blood there was, I must admit, but exciting still nonetheless!"

"I-Is that so? My... that really does sound quite wonderful," Siesta replied half-heartedly. _'No blood? So nobody died?' _She felt as if the other half of her heart had shrunk.

"Indeed, indeed! I must thank you, My O' Festive Siesta, were it not for you taking my work I would not have seen such a show!" She was practically skipping on her heels yet was still not excitable enough to have directly interrupted her friend from her current physical duties.

"You're welcomed," she replied dryly.

"You're a lucky girl, O' Festive Siesta," Alice continued, "If Siegeinherd hadn't made you his queen then I would offer myself up just for him~!"

"Siegeinherd?"

"The frightening knight, as black as night~!" She wagged her finger, "That's what the tiny girl in pink called him."

_'Siegeinherd...'_ It was actually a rather appealing name but Siesta quickly shook her head, "I-Is that so? That's a good sounding name."

"Right? Right?" Alice repeated excitedly, "Anyways, congratulations to you, Siesta! When can I expect your wedding?"

The black-haired maid paled, "W-W-Wedding?! I... that's..!" Her voice rose a pitch, "A-Alice, take over for me! I-I need to go back to my room and rest!" and scurried away in haste.

Her friend merely nodded and waved, "You deserve it, working hard as you have. See you around, My Festive!"

As Siesta made her way back to her room, most people would have said that she had a fever since her face was quite flushed, but the truth of the matter was that she was blushing and her imagination was running quite wild.

It was all so vivid in her mind; all so surreal yet so right. She could hear herself moaning the name of a certain now-named knight as the two of them proceeded to many lascivious and debauchery deeds before enacting the bed-shaking act of baby-making.

...And, deep in inside, she liked it.

[...]

Old Osmand was the first to break the silence between them, "Well," he drawled slowly, "That was certainly an informative duel."

"Informative?" Colbert asked rhetorically with a slight tone of disdain.

"Quite," the Headmaster responded without explaining himself. He stroked his beard, "This is a lot to take in and will take time for both of us to digest. For now, I suggest you carefully consider what you have seen about Miss Valliere's Familiar... When you have come to your conclusion _then_ we may can continue our conversation. Feel free to push aside your usual duties as a teacher until you have confirmed your decision; you are dismissed, Colbert."

The middle-aged man could only frown as he nodded mildly, "Sir," and turned to leave.

Jean de Colbert had a lot of things to think about and sort through. It would take hours - perhaps days but most likely weeks - for him to come to a consensus with himself.

After all, it was his decision that would ultimately decide the fate of a certain strawberry blond student.

He hoped that he would make it in time.

* * *

**Author Notes**

So here's chapter three, which is like an intermission of sorts where we see the different POVs during and after the duel along with some of the beginning as well. I made it a separate chapter as to not interrupt the flow of the previous one (it would get quite confusing and info-dumpish with so many different POVs at work). I'll try not to do it too much (outside of Louise and the Overlord) because I do know how annoying it is to have a perspective change every two minutes.

I had originally planned to cut off Katherine's and Siesta's POV for this chapter. But, after Tabitha's robotic analysis section, it felt a bit too skimpy since the ending was right behind.

I think one of the most 'minor' but constructive criticism that simply appeared once in ZNO (Chapter 21, Grosstoad) was that only a few characters ever got development/screentime in the story. I definitely agree with that review; hence I'll try to balance this screentime thing with plot advancement, let's see if I can succeed...

Thank you for reading, reviewing, favoriting, following, and whatever else!

* * *

**Review Notes**

_Selias_, I agree that cliches go hand to hand with Overlord; its what made the video game so entertaining (along with the MIINNNIIIIOOOOONNNNNNSSSSSSS!). I'm not so worried about using cliches, as so much whether I'm using them in an entertaining manner...

_GreyMan19_, There is indeed a lot more about the Halkeginia Magic System to delve into then what I've shown; it probably won't appear in the main story though, so expect it to show in up a World Notes section very far in the future. Well, here's Katherine getting some more screentime; we'll just have to wait and see if she gets a bigger role for anything else soon (for now this will have to do)...

_RoughStar333_, In ZNO Mathilda develops plenty of respect for the Overlord but didn't develop any intimate feelings for him. Now, don't get me wrong, I did say in ZNO (and eventually in SAK, I'm sure) that the Mathilda Route was open. But that was less her wanting the demi-god's affection, as so much that the Overlord could gain her love if he decided to pursue a relationship with her. Basically, the answer is a 'probably.'

_Der Kaiser_, I pretty much plan to keep him as silent as ever with plenty of snark and commentaries inside his thoughts.

_Litewarior_, Actually, the Overlord didn't encounter Guiche or Katie at night, the original draft was for him to hear about it during the lunch-time gossips and therefore caused the duel to occur later, and the Overlord would have also gone after Guiche on principle. So with those variables all together, the set-up pretty much makes it impossible to avoid the duel.

What I meant wasn't that the Guiche Duel was unavoidable in all stories... it was simply unavoidable in SAK is all. Anyways, duly noted.

_Twigon Halolover_, I actually have a reason for why the Royals don't summon a familiar and this will most likely pop-up in the main story eventually; for now I've added a World Notes section for it.

Anyways, will the familiars get more screentime? Possibly. I don't really have any arcs in mind that is specifically for them (outside of the Familiar Exhibition, which only showcases a few anyways). But mentions or appearances every so often will probably occur.

_TeninChwang_, If I'm using real-word explanations/analogies then its probably because I'm presuming that it's a very simple thing to mentally visualize; it might break the immersion a bit but it does get the point across fairly easily. On that note, the Sahara is an actual location in The Familiar Of Zero canon (it's located in Romalia near the borders of the Holy Lands and there's some spoilerific things buried there...).

And nope, this isn't the Evil Overlord or the Jerk Overlord, it's the Noble Overlord. I didn't state such a thing directly but it's all right there in the beginning of chapter one (returned the food to the peasants, remained faithful to Rose, protected the sacred elf tree, ensured the elve's survival, returned the goddess statue, and didn't kill the townspeople).

_Sevenar_, The Overlord doesn't speak because he isn't a man of few words but a man of action instead, or at least that's how I prefer to interpret and write his character.

* * *

**World Notes**

_This segment shall be dedicated to explaining the differences between Zero's Noble Overlord and Strawberry And Knight that I feel like pointing out (or has been requested by reviewers). It shall also be used to explain additional background stuff whenever I feel like it._

_Loads of bonus information but not necessary to read to enjoy the main-story. Please feel free to skip._

_[...]_

Royal Familiars: Plot spoilers for Strawberry And Knight ahead; read at your own discretion.

Now bear with me, if I recall correctly about canon... Tristain has Gandalfr, Romalia has Windalfr, Gallia has Myozunitonirn, and Albion has Lifdrasir, these Void Familiars can only belong to the respective Void Mage of each country. A Void Mage is someone who hails from Brimir's bloodline (hence, that would typically either be Royalty or those related to royalty) and they pretty much only appear in times of upheaval and turmoil. Likewise, if the current Void Mage dies then a new one will be selected from someone else.

Well, I've decided to do a bit more than just that.

In this story, there are two types of Void Mages. The first kind are the ones described above, the direct inheritor of Brimir's powers and familiars, who I'm going to label as 'Legacy Void Mages.' The last time anyone saw them legitimately was roughly 4500 years ago during a certain world-crisis.

Then there's the second kind, the regular bunch of Void Mages who are simply born into the element. These people are generally born about once-every-third-or-fourth generation in the Royal-Blood Families and generally about once-every-thirteen-to-fifteen-generation in the other Mage Families.

If my math isn't wrong, in 6000 years and over the course of 300 generations, that's about a minimum of 75-100 Void Mages conceived by a single Royal Family... And that's on the assumption that the Royal Family has about two children every generation - the numbers could easily double depending on how many partners a Royal has (and it's not unusual for a Royal to have gone through multiple partners either).

Assuming that these children aren't hidden away for their explosive spells, these regular Void Mages are incapable of summoning familiars (because there's no proper void-aligned beast in Halkeginia). Hence, because of this situation, there is a Secret Familiar Division within the Royal Families that tame wild beasts and gift those as 'familiars' to these Void Mages and also Royals.

Now that's all fine and dandy, but what does that have to do with legitimate mages - like Princess Henrietta - who can summon a familiar if they wanted to? Why aren't they allowed to summon familiars? Well... after a certain world-wide catastrophe where three-to-five generations of the immediate successors to the thrones were unexpectedly Void Mages, the Secret Familiar Division basically got a promotion to constantly provide familiars for all Royal Members just in case.

Add that in to the fact that most Royals don't end up any higher than Triangle-Class (there were massively huge gigantically large amounts of inbreeding 6000 years ago trying to keep the Direct Brimir Bloodline as pure as possible; while that didn't cause any mental retardation there was indeed magical degradation of the Willpower Body Network)... Thus, there is an unwritten rule that Royals are not allowed to summon a familiar, since the Secret Familiar Division would be able to provide a more righteously majestic one that befitted their image.

_IN SHORT_, Royals aren't allowed to summon a familiar because the Secret Familiar Division will just give them a very awesome and obedient pet instead.

But wait! Are Royals not to allow to summon familiars in the TFOZ-canon? I really don't know - if they are, I've never seen them. Hence, this entire hooplah is just for this story; I hope its a decent and logically answer.

But a moment, please! ...Does that mean Henrietta will get a (fake) familiar in SAK? Yes... No more spoilers for you; be quiet.

_[...]_

Hair Colors And Eye Colors: In Tristain the hair-color of the people is a vibrant spectrum that basically encompasses the rainbow and then some. Though most of their colors are usually black, brown, or blond-hair, but other colors like pink, purple, and red have their fair-share as well.

In Germania the hair-color is generally more of a shade of dull-earth or vibrant-hot. They range from black to brown or yellow to red with the slightly uncommon pink and purple.

In Romalia the hair-color is typically light and bright. Pretty much all of them fall under having golden-hair or close to pale-white-hair.

In Gallia the hair-color tends to be on the cool and perhaps even darker side. Most of the citizens have either some sort of blue or green color and purple can be a common sight as well.

In Albion the hair-color is similar to Tristain with its wide-spectrum of colors but it leans toward have more cooler colors than brighter ones. The people usually have brown or blond hair but green, blue, and purple are not all that unusual either.

Eye-colors in general tend to match the hair-color (especially true if one is a mage) but that isn't always the case and can often be a different color as well.

_[...]_

Money: Originally in Halkeginia (shortly after the time of Founder Brimir and the end of the Age Of Chaos) the currencies were copper-pieces Dernier, silver-pieces Sou, and gold-pieces Ecu. These money were the size, weight, appearance, and texture of a very tiny pebble.

However the Nobles did not want to associate with the same lower-money used by the Commoners and created a new kind of coin (which happened to a real coin this time instead of a lump of metal) for themselves to use exclusively: New Gold (or Newgot). From then on, Dernier, Sou, and Ecu were grouped together and renamed as Commoner Currency.

Soon a very noticeable problem for the Nobles came up: as Exiled Nobles were still mages they could conjure up as many Commoner Currency as they wished to pay the masses. Likewise, newgot-less or poorer Nobles could easily continue to live in a relative life of luxury and comfort due to the same reasons.

Loathing to do it, but their large pride of properly punishing other nobles to set an example had won out over their simple dislike of Commoners, the Nobles and Royals of Halkeginia quickly phased out the Commoner Currency and introduced New Gold to them (which soon came to be known as Newgot by both sides since the newer incarnations used even lesser gold in its design).

This act had actually helped Halkeginia in the long run by stabilizing their economy.

But exiled and disgraced mages alike, unable to pay for their previous life-styles, swiftly faded away into obscurity...

_[...]_

Gods: Halkeginia's many mythologies and lore allude to all sorts of gods. But the Nobles predominantly only believe in five true gods.

These five deities are known as The Gods Of The Pentagon Powers or as The Gods Of Elemental Magic. They are the very beings said to have blessed Founder Brimir with magic and also passed down their teachings to him (making Brimir their Patron Saint).

The Fire God: Ashirandon Of The Absolute Fire; it is often depicted as a large and powerful male warrior, wreathed in raging flames and wielding a terrifyingly large sword. Ashirandon is often associated with war, honor, and death.

The Earth God: Mundoremog Of The Measureless Earth; it is often depicted as a bulky and armored male knight, disproportionate in size with a larger-upper body and humongous arms supported by somewhat lanky legs, he is covered in fertile earth with a wide assortment of beautiful plant-life growing on over it. Mundoremog is often associated with agriculture and expansion.

The Water God: Irisveiya Of The Immortal Water; it is often depicted as a mature and attractive female (quite curvy in form) and almost draped immodestly in vibrantly flowing robes. Irisveiya is often associated with healing, loyalty, and beauty.

The Wind God: Erefoseva Of The Eternal Wind; it is often depicted as a lithe female with multiple white bird-like wings (a pair of wings on her head, three pair of wings on her back, pairs of wings wrapping around her chest and genitals, and wings on her ankles). Erefoseva is often associated with the weather, emotions, and secrets.

The Void God: Zelgis Of The Zenith Void; it is often depicted as a shadowy but kingly figure with three staring eyes. Zelgis is often associated with rulership and power.

_[...]_

Familiars: What elements do Dogs, Cats, Snakes, etc fall under? The most commonly accepted answer in the scientific-community is that these animals do not have an explicit sort of element and are like humans because they can come in a variety of elements. The easiest way to tell what element they are aligned to (and therefore their Master's as well) is to check their runes.

A Gravelord Spietle is a beast that is a cross between a beetle and a spider with some humanoid characteristics, it is exclusively considered as a Earth Element creature and is primarily summoned by Line Class or lower-to-average Triangle Class Mages. They have the lowerbody of a spider (eight-legs) and the bulky upperbody of a beetle, their two arms are scythe-like and they have a single large horn on their head. They are around the size of a two bears and primarily dark in coloration. This particular species of Spietle have made their homes in the ancient underground ruins that dot everywhere all over Halkeginia. They are not very social creatures, preferring to be alone most of the time, and are quite aggressive. They apparently communicate through a means of shrill or guttural clicks. Gravelord Spietles are the most common hazard to treasure-hunters and archeologists.

The Mountain Crown Goat is a fairly large species of goat that makes their home in cool and high mountainous areas (a large amount of their population exists in Gallia, while smaller ones can be found in Albion and Tristain). They are light in color, have very large curly horns (that almost looks like a crown from a certain angle), a sturdy forehead, and a impressive jump-strength. They are considered as Line Class and Earth Element beasts. Their non-mountainous cousins, the Lance Crown Goat, have distinctly sharper horns that curl in a different pattern, much less wool, and also meatier and stronger legs. When charging, they have poor eyesight and tend to move in a straight line.

_[...]_

Iavictorem Of The Heavy Wind: The famous Mage-Knight Of Tristain, Iavictorem Of The Heavy Wind currently holds the rank of Royal Fleet Admiral - the highest rank available to a soldier, allowing him to effectively take control of any or all of Tristain's military forces during times of war.

Records state that he was previously only a Commander in the Manticore Corps but quickly rose up in position during the short war known as the Fallen City Of Demonic Return (a group of stupid adventurers had accidentally broken the barriers to an ancient island-city, located near the southern coast of Gallia, that was sealed away for being infested with demons). Purportedly, eyewitnesses stated that it was Iavictorem who single-handedly destroyed the entire city with multiple giant spears of wind.

Iavictorem is described as a an average-sized person, however he was always seen wearing the fearsome and fully-plated Manticore Knight Armor that also hid his face, he had a rather deep and almost inhuman-esque voice (it is speculated to be caused by some sort of obscure Wind Spell), and always carried himself with immense confidence and warrior-like grace.

'Iavictorem' is not a real name, it is simply Halkeginic for 'Victory.' In other words, his alias is literally read as 'Victory Of The Heavy Wind.' His true identity and current whereabouts are unknown but he has not officially retire from the Tristain Royal Army.

Though, despite his lack of official activities, every so often there are unexplained events - such as the annihilation of a horde of monsters, the destruction of criminal organizations, or the routing of insurrectionist elements - occurring strictly in Tristain. These events are attributed to Iavictorem, whose name is still feared in the dark underbelly of the world...

_[...]_

Siesta Of Tarbes: In the original Zero's Noble Overlord, Siesta was suppose to be a secondary character of sorts. I had no real plans for her besides showing her off as a character that wanted to get underneath the Overlord's armor, with a casual descent into darkness on the side. In fact, she warmed up to the Overlord a bit too fast and then sorta just faded away from the story...

Here? There's some conflict about her attraction to the Overlord. But, really, I'm going to spoil it for you, but Siesta's romance-subplot is ultimately nothing to worry about. Female Hormone Imbalances plus Manly Overlord equals Resistance Is Futile (the end).

And of course (though I have yet to decide for any expanded roles for Siesta in SAK) she will still get more screentime/development for the previous events that she attended in ZNO - such as the Invasion Of Tarbes which will get more elaborated on, or the Treasure Hunt if I don't skimp on that.


End file.
